#sirius/celeste

[beataylorsversion]

"From strangers to friends, Friends into lovers, And strangers again?"

but it's mary macdonald after she is obliviated and can't remember the name of the red head girl who haunts her dreams.

[aquarii-if]

The gods of Aquarii and Chronos have ruled for billions of years. (Psst! You can take this quiz to find out which god parent you should choose!)

Delano, The God of Time- Delano is the father of all the gods and goddesses, except for Celeste, who is his granddaughter. Nobody knows how Delano came to be, it's just accepted that one day he appeared on Aquarii and decided to create the Mitans. Delano is beloved by the Mitans for his laid-back personality, and being one of the only gods who can actually take a joke. For some reason, Delano decided to give his demigod children clocks for pupils. The hands actually move. Being a father of ten other gods, and a grandfather, Delano is pretty much the perfect dad. He's supportive and caring, but strict when he needs to be. Delano values independence, so he expects his children to be able to complete tasks and challenge themselves without his help, but he'll still be there to protect them if they find themselves in a situation where they can't save themselves. He wants them to be strong, but also smart, don't overexert yourself.

Aquila, The Goddess of Water- Aquila is the eldest of all the gods and goddesses. Delano decided that Aquarii needed a planet, and used a couple of meteors with H2O in them to create a planet entirely made of water. The ocean then began to create a large whirlpool, and Delano used this whirlpool to create Aquila. Aquila is known to be very unpredictable, which causes Aquarii's oceans to be quite dangerous. At one point of the day, the water may be calm and gentle, but in a single instance, it can turn aggressive and furious. However, Aquila is known to be a very kind and supportive mother, so long as her children remain respectful to her. Similarly to how a single wave can throw a surfer off balance, one disrespectful move toward Aquila, and her child can be sent into a world of punishment. Aquila likes to turn her children's pupils into the ocean, their eyes tend to be dark blue with waves gently moving across the water, and you can even see the white seafoam in their eyes.

Mahina, The Goddess of Death- It's quite strange to see that the goddess of death came before the goddess of life, but Mahina has always liked to make her own rules. While Delano was distracted and attempting to create another planet in Aquarii, he wasn't able to stop a meteor from coming in and destroying the planet he created for Aquila. As the waters of the planet completely burned over and the planet exploded, a woman appeared. She giggled at the destruction and demanded that Delano do it again. Originally, Mahina was the goddess of misfortune, but she later switched her position to be the goddess of death when Alula created Mitans. Mahina is an impatient, selfish, and overall terrible person to be around, but she's even worse to her own children. She's known to be quite neglectful and abusive towards them and mostly sees them as weapons and servants to her cause rather than actual people. If they show even a hint of emotion in her presence, she writes them off as weak and practically abandons them until she finds another use for them. Children of Mahina tend to have small black cracks in their skin, and their scleras and pupils are turned completely black.

Aurora, The Goddess of Love and Beauty- Similarly to Mahina, many find it strange that the goddess of love came before the goddess of life. But even gods can feel love and want to be beautiful. Originally, the gods did not have bodies, they were just atoms floating around through space. Delano wanted to feel the ocean, so he decided to attempt to create a form that could feel. His first form can only be described as monstrous, but it was his, and he thought it was beautiful. These emotions caused Aurora to form, and she complimented Delano's form and caused Delano to experience love toward himself. Aurora is known to be an excitable and happy goddess, she adores the Mitans and wants them all to live long lives full of love and beauty. She doesn't believe there is such thing as 'ugly', and can find beauty in practically anything. She's also known to be quite a good mother to her children but can be a bit of a pushover as well.

Alula, The Goddess of Life- It didn't take long for the four gods before Alula began to feel lonely. Delano decided he wanted to create a species that weren't gods, but a species he could take care of. These feelings caused Alula to appear, and she said that she could help him. She caused some islands to appear from under the waves and began to grow trees and other plants on these islands, before she used the land, the water, and the stars to create the Mitans. Similarly to Aurora, Alula cares deeply for her Mitans. She does her best to keep the galaxy healthy and alive and takes care of the Mitans to make sure they live long healthy lives. However, she does have a bias towards her children, who she tends to spoil with an abundance of food and herbs for them to stay alive longer than the average Mitan. But she doesn't do this for nothing, she expects that her children use their powers to help others, and she's known to offer harsh punishments to her children who use their powers for evil.

Ida, The Goddess of Wisdom and Curiosity- Of course, Mitans wouldn't have lasted long without some kind of intelligence, but Delano also wanted them to be independent. He had the Mitans become curious creatures and encouraged them to explore the world to satiate these curiosities. While the Mitans were searching through a forest and discovering the other forms of life there, Ida came and guided them to a clearing that was the perfect land to begin building a civilization. Ida is stoic and withdrawn, preferring to keep to herself. She's not very interactive with Mitans or the other gods, but she is still known to be helpful when it comes to the evolution of Mitans. She's been a great asset to Mitan space travel. Ida is not the most emotionally supportive parent when it comes to her children, but she isn't against emotion like Mahina is, she just isn't good at comforting people. She's quite supportive of her children's personal endeavors and will help lead them on the right path of whatever they wish to accomplish. She believes there are many different forms of intelligence, and whether her children want to be scientists, artists, or warriors, she's right there by their side.

Cielo, The God of Creativity- The Mitans quickly grew bored with the geometric shapes of the world and the many mathematical problems they had to solve just to make a tent. They had creative abilities and wanted a way to demonstrate them. Delano gave them the idea of using the tree sap they used to make syrup and glue to make something they could write on and to use the charcoal for fire as a writing utensil. The Mitans began writing many stories, creating music, and even drawing on this newfound invention. As they did, they heard some music playing from the forest, and there they found Cielo, playing a tune using a stick he carved into a flute. Cielo is a very carefree god who prefers to have fun and play with Mitans rather than attempt to rule over them. Out of the twelve, Cielo is the favorite. Cielo's children tend to have healing powers and can heal others just by playing a simple tune. Cielo encourages his children to be kind and to dream big, along with doing everything they can to achieve these dreams.

Sirius, The God of War- It wasn't long before the Mitans began to see their differences. Originally, these differences were welcomed and encouraged. The Mitans used their differences to further civilization and evolution. But of course, different people tend to butt heads all the time, and that's exactly what happened with the Mitans. Two groups of Mitans began to fight more and more, and eventually, they began to get physical. Another group of Mitans stopped them before anyone got hurt, but they suddenly heard loud clapping. When they turned, Sirius was sitting nearby, encouraging them to keep going. When Sirius was younger, he encouraged Mitans to fight more and even stated that differences shouldn't be welcomed and should be challenged, because everyone should strive to be normal. But over time, he matured and realized that he actually didn't want them to fight. He doesn't encourage peace, though, and he believes that sometimes people have to fight to get along and that fighting can actually help you learn more about someone. Sirius loves his children but has high expectations for them. He expects them to be strong and stick up for themselves, however, he's still kind to his children who lack self-esteem, and he tries to help them build their confidence. Still, he doesn't like slackers or self-pity, he always expects his children to strive to be better.

Anatole, The God of Seasons- At the beginning of Aquarii, the weather was known to be a disaster. Control of the weather was shared between Aquila, Alula, Delano, and Sirius. All four have very conflicting personalities and opinions, which caused them to fight using the weather. Aquila didn't see anything wrong with it raining all the time, while Alula didn't want it to rain because the Mitans couldn't build their civilizations and couldn't protect themselves from her hurricanes. Sirius also didn't like the rain because he couldn't make it hot enough, while Delano didn't want the weather to be too rainy or too sunny, just calm. Alula then would argue that it wasn't challenging enough for the Mitans to just have calm weather all of the time. The excessive change of the weather every day was so intense that the four accidentally caused a flood. When the flood was over, Anatole was protecting the Mitans and a rainbow appeared over their small village. Anatole used to adore the Mitans, the same way Cielo and Alula did. But a couple thousand years ago, he randomly disappeared, and nobody has seen him since. The only reason the Mitans even know he's still alive is because their weather is still normal and predictable, which means Sirius, Aquila, Delano, and Alula still don't have control of it. Anatole has never had any demigod children, so nobody really knows how he would treat them, or even what kind of powers they would have.

Soleil, The God of Emotion- Technically speaking, Soleil and Anatole are twins. Just seconds after the gods and Mitans saw Anatole, Soleil appeared from behind him. Originally, Soleil didn't have a purpose, as his godhood wasn't very obvious when he first appeared. But Delano thought his reactions to things like artwork, the Mitans fighting, the Mitans falling in love, and his extreme empathy towards others were unusual. So Delano appointed him as the god of emotion, and he fit into his role perfectly. Soleil is very hard to predict, one minute he's happy and joyful and bringing hope and love to Aquarii, and the next he's pissed off and causing the gods and the Mitans to fight and wreak havoc on one another. Nobody really knows what makes Soleil mad and what makes him happy, because of this, he's not well-liked among the Mitans or the gods. He's known to be very calm around his children and his brother, Anatole, though. But he's quite controlling, and a lot of Soleil's children tend to be dependent on him, and quite spoiled, or they grow up to resent him and develop a desperate need to be independent.

Donati, The God of Fortune and Wealth- As Mitan civilizations grew bigger and bigger, they began running out of food for everyone, and had to begin splitting it. But they quickly realized they couldn't split everything equally, so they needed a way to differentiate who deserved the bigger pieces. Delano then grabbed some gold from underground and shaped it into a thin circle. The Mitans were unsure of how they were supposed to ration these coins when Donati appeared. He had the Mitans fetch more gold and make more coins, before explaining to them that the best way to ration them is to give more to the ones who work harder than others or have a more important job. Of course, the way money is rationed now in Aquarii is much different than Donati originally intended it to be. It's no shock that Donati loves money and expensive things, and out of all the gods, he's the easiest to please. Just drop an expensive gold piece of jewelry in front of his temple, and you're set for life. Donati is a nice father, so long as you're actually worth something to him. All of his children so far have been nepo babies, Donati doesn't like having children with poor people, or anyone who isn't famous. Donati loves spoiling his children, and he has a hard time saying no when they ask him for something, even if he knows he shouldn't be so lenient with them. Overall, Donati's children are pretty blessed.

Celeste, The Goddess of Consequences- Celeste was originally a demigod, a daughter of Aquila. But Aquila adored her so much and believed Celeste was so powerful that she couldn't bear to send Celeste down to Mahina, and when Celeste died, Aquila took her body up to the god's domain and ascended her to godhood. During her mortal life, Celeste took vengeance on a man after her mortal mother was harmed by him. He came and murdered her in the middle of the night, and Celeste trained for years and did every piece of detective work she could to find him. Once she did, she tortured and brutally murdered him, before doing the same to countless others who committed similar crimes. When Celeste ascended, she became the goddess of consequences, swearing to take revenge on those who did evil. Celeste has a very neutral opinion of gods and Mitans as a whole, believing that whether someone is good or bad is up to the individual, not the species. Celeste has no soft spot nor practices any kind of favoritism for her children, she believes that they are just as capable of bad deeds as anyone else and that they deserve equal punishment. She's not mean to them, though, but she's not the most present mother either.

[livingforcoopsandoknutzy]

o'knutzy week day 3: cookout

credit to @lumosinlove

@oknutzyweek2023 <3

team cookouts

remus, dumo (celeste), and leo are in charge of the main courses because they're voted best chefs

james and lily along with dorcas and marlene typically bring desserts

everyone else either brings drinks or snacks

sirius and regulus are always in charge of getting the alcohol (no one really knows why it just kinds happens)

there's lots of dancing and lots of karaoke 

lily and james DEMOLISH dancing queen

leo and reg are reigning champions of karaoke night with their killer queen

logan and remus always end up having too many drinks even though they swear they aren't drinking 

every cookout brings a new level of peace to everyone

a sense is family a majority of them have lacked

they're always held at dumo's house and more often than not most of the teams ends up sleeping over

either because they drank too much or simply because no one wants the night to end

they have these cookouts at the end of every month and for every holiday

[astroaries98]

Promises...

I started writing a few bits including my OC who is always in my head so now is on paper as well...

Celeste Black was draped across a chaise lounge in her parent's library, book in one hand, a half-eaten apple in the other. She was wearing black tights under a dark green, velvet dress with white ruffles on the cuffs and collar. She had a matching ribbon in her long dark hair. She had kicked off her shoes and was humming along to a record that was playing in the corner of the room. 

Lost in her reading she didn’t hear the library door open and was startled when the music suddenly stopped, she looked up to see her brother, dressed in smart black robes taking the needle from the spinning vinyl. 

“They’ll be back soon,” Regulus said turning to look at her before she could ask what he was doing. 

Celeste nodded and put her book down, “Krecher” she called. With a loud snap, the house elf appeared. 

“How can Krecher help the young Miss Black?” He said as he bowed. 

“Please can you hide the record player so my parents won't find it” Celeste asked getting up, and waving her hand in the direction of her brother. 

“Of course, Miss” Krecher moved over to Regulus and with another snap, the player and vinyls had gone along with the apple core Celeste had left on the coffee table. 

“Thank you Krecher, that’s all for now.” Celeste smiled pleasantly. 

Another bow, another snap and the house elf had gone. Celeste looked over to her brother who was staring at her with a glint of anger in his eyes. 

‘What?” she asked innocently. 

“You shouldn’t be so careless, you didn’t hear me come in, what if that was one of them?” He accused. 

Celeste rolled her eyes, “But it wasn’t Reg, it’s all good, don’t stress” 

“It’s not though, is it? Listening to Muggle Music? Where did you even get that from anyway?” He had slightly raised his voice.

Celeste opened her mouth to speak but Regulus held up his hand to stop her, “In fact, I don't even need to ask, I know exactly where you found it.” He sighed. “Celeste soon I won't be here, you need to be more careful or…” 

Regulus’s rant was interrupted by the door opening again, both siblings turned to look, a caught expression on their faces. 

“Woah, it’s just me” Sirius laughed as he walked in wearing tight jeans, a muggle band tee and Doc Martins. 

Regulus took one look at him and smacked the palm of his hand to his forehead. Sirius just rolled his eyes and blobbed his tongue out at his little sister. 

“Why are you shouting at CeCe Reg?” He asked walking over, putting his arm around Celeste and pulled a pouty face making her laugh. ‘Don’t you think she gets it enough? Poor lamb.” He mocked. 

Regulus looked slightly guilty, “I’m not shouting…I’m just saying that soon we’ll both be off to Hogwarts and she’ll be here, and she just needs to be more careful.” 

“Are you sure you’re only 11?” Sirius laughed, “are we sure he’s only 11?” he asked his sister. 

Celeste just shrugged with a smirk on her face. 

“Reg it’s fine, Ce knows the rules, she’s lived in this house almost as long as you, she gets it, she’ll be fine and it’ll only be a few months and you’ll…urm we’ll.. be back for Christmas and she has Krecher” Sirius stumbled over the last part of his sentence. 

“I’ll be back?” Regulus dropped his authoritative tone and now he really did look 11. 

Sirius grimaced regretting his slip-up. “It’s just…” he rubbed the back of his head and avoided Regulus’s eye contact. “James did mention…” 

Regulus threw his hands up in the air, “Well of course he did…”

“Don’t be like that Reg, once you meet him you’ll love him, I promise.” 

Regulus’s face turned to thunder, he highly doubted that. 

Celeste pulled away from Sirius. “Would you actually go?” she twisted her fingers in her hands and looked up at Sirius. 

Sirius looked between both of his siblings, sighed and pulled them both onto the chaise lounge beside him. 

“Sorry, I don’t know what I was thinking, of course I wouldn’t, not if you were both still here.” He put his arms around them both, Regulus tried to pull away but eventually fell into the sibling group hug. “I’ll never leave you with them, I promise,” Sirius whispered to them. 

All three of the young Black siblings had silent tears in their eyes, convincing themselves this was the one promise that wouldn’t ever be broken.

[writer-with-no-home]

Honey, I'm taking no orders (I'm gonna be nobody's soldier)

Chapter VI

Warnings: Graphic depictions of Violence, Mentions of Rape/Non-con

Rating: General Audiences

Word Count: 2.1k

Story Summary:

Alex has never known her real parents. She doesn't want to. The men who raised her were cruel and treated her more like a weapon than a human, and she had barely come out alive. The scar tissue that litters almost every inch of her body, layer upon layer, is all the proof anyone needs. When she wakes to an owl with her Hogwarts letter and the subsequent revelation that she's Rosalie Potter, twin to the boy-who-lived, she begins one of the worst days of her life. Suddenly, the family she does not care for wants her back, the ministry is hell bent on making their wishes a reality, and she is suddenly the most interesting topic in the wizarding world. Alex isn't interested in playing happy family: she's bitter and angry and if years of torture have taught her anything, it's that there is always a way out. She has no interest in yielding to guilt-filled attempts to gain her trust, and quietly counts down the days till Hogwarts begins and she can stay away from anybody remotely associated with the Potter family. Caught between her desire for her old life and the ever looming presence of her biological family, Alex must navigate a world where magic doesn’t ease pain, and blood doesn’t guarantee trust.

Chapter Summary:

Her magic doesn’t simply destroy – it makes people suffer. That is the difference. Destruction cares only for annihilation, for turning things to dust. Devastation is about anguish, torment, and plight, and desperation. Eternal damnation it may not be, but it sure as hell would feel like it.

a/n: okay so maybe I lied about it being a few days. My bad. I promise this time I will get the next chapter up in a few days, I just could not for the life of me, find a name that suited this character. I looked for literally ages, and in between uni and personal issues this chapter took ages. I know what I'm doing for the next one and I promise I will try and make it long since this is only 2k.

Anyway everyone welcome Celeste, she's a delight (menace), and there will be a link between her and the whole Weasley name thing, think back to her age.

Chapter VI: Celeste I

She’s standing in a sea of black and then there’s a forest stretching out before her, its edges blurred like the faded corners of an old photograph. It doesn’t look real – more like a memory, smudged and half-forgotten. The trees rise like skeletal hands from the earth, their bark slick and dark, as if damp with something thicker than rain. A grey mist clings low to the ground, twisting like fingers reaching out for her. The air is heavy with the scent of moss and damp wood, but beneath it all, something metallic lingers – faint but unmistakable.

She’s running, running deeper into the forest like she knows it like the back of her hand, she manoeuvres over fallen logs and tree branches and roots, and carcasses like she’s done this before, like it’s some kind of sick playground.

The deeper the body moves, the stranger she feels. The trees press in around her, stretching so high into the sky Celeste isn’t quite sure they end, their branches are tangled together in a canopy so thick that only slivers of moonlight pierce through. The leaves shimmer with an eerie glow, not quite green, not quite silver, and the realisation dawns on Celeste like a bucket of ice cold water in the middle of winter.

A faerie’s domain.

The body continues to move, and it’s only then Celeste realises everything is so large because she’s tiny, barely four feet tall. She’s watching a child.

The child moves through the trees, barefooted and sure of herself, even as the damp earth and fallen leaves beneath her make Celeste fill with unease, a faerie’s domain is not something to be crossed.

The child does not seem to notice or care.

There is no sound except for the whisper of the wind through the branches, but even that feels unnatural – too rhythmic, too precise, like the forest itself is breathing. Shadows dance at the edges of her vision, flickering between the gaps, and shifting as though they’re alive.

Celeste isn’t sure if she’s imagining it or if something is really watching this child like prey from the corners of darkness.

The child takes off again, this time faster, blurring through the trees, swinging from one branch to another. The mist thickens as she runs, swirling around her, like the mist is trying to grasp at her, like it doesn’t want her to leave. The child keeps running, higher and higher and higher, running until Celeste can taste the copper in the girl’s mouth, can feel it running down her back, the pain is sharp, and the liquid is too slick to be anything else, but the girl barely feels it, and so Celeste barely feels it.

She does not know how long the injury has been there, the girl does not hiss, does not tense, does not slow down. She’s not sure if that’s better or worse. The girl lands in the middle of a small clearing, and she stands still, waiting for something.

Celeste wants to scream at the girl to run, to grab something, she’s got no weapons, and she is so small. The girl's heartbeat stutters, but she does not move, the trees are still tinted with the silver markings of a faerie's territory, but Celeste knows the monster after the girl is not a faerie.

Something else is there.

And it’s hungry.

Celeste sees a shadow come toward her and before she can blink the girl has pushed the monster to the ground, hands in it’s jaw, opening it, tearing it apart.

The monster is a pale white, with burning red eyes, and sharp fangs. Vampire. Celeste notes, and her fear rises.

The girl pulls slowly, and to Celeste’s amazement the cracks expand from the edges of the vampire’s lips, slowly tearing him apart.

Then a laugh echoes through the trees, a mocking, light, laugh, and the girl tenses for the first time during this ordeal, tearing the head off cleanly and standing straight as the body slumps at her feet.

Whatever’s coming for her is much worse.

The last thing she hears is a small, desperate, help me.

Celeste jolts awake with a gasp, her hands flying to her throat as she struggles for air, her breaths coming in desperate, heaving gulps.

Eventually, the tension in her body eases, and she lets herself reflect on the dream. It wasn’t a normal dream – far too real, far too vivid to be a mere dream, which left only one possibility.

Another soulmate.

Then she’s angry, filled with a fury she rarely feels, the girl was a child. She makes a vow then, whoever laid a hand on what was rightfully hers, would pay. She would use every drop of magic in her veins to make sure the pain lasted an eternity. She knows it’s a memory, because if it was a recent memory her magic would have already started to ravage the planet.

The girl was experienced though, and Celeste shudders to think about what it means. She tore apart the vampire like she was toying with it, and though a very large part of Celeste feels sick at the dream, she feels equally proud of her soulmate for surviving it.

Her soulmate.

The thought sends a thrill through her. She’s not sure how many she has, but the idea of another makes an unfamiliar warmth bloom in her chest. She’s always cold. As a nephilim, as the humans have deigned her, she carries the trait from her angelic side.

She’s not really a nephilim, she may be half angel, but she’s in no way a servant of heaven, and there’s nothing truly human about her. She’s considered a nephilim by heaven until she ages, though. The Queen would never dare to order her around like she does her angels, though. The consequences of ordering around a creature not bound to her are far too catastrophic for her to try.

Celeste doesn’t like to dwell on what it means, that she’s one of the very few creatures that don’t belong to the Gods who claim dominion over everything. There’s only one possibility, and the mere thought of it drains all warmth from her veins.

God.

The word reverberates through her mind, echoing like a warning. She may be a nephilim by heaven’s standards but she knows the Angels do not see her as such. They bow to her, follow her commands. When she defies the Queen’s instructions, they never try to restrain and control her, like they would with other creatures.

She knows what she is. She does not have to reach the age of maturity or whatever else they’re hoping for to know what her domain is. There are only five Gods who outrank the Creator, and everyone knows their titles.

Celeste knows which title is hers. The God of Air. The God of the Sky. The God of Weather, Justice, Tornadoes, Hurricanes, Typhoons, and, worst of all, Devastation.

There are a hundred more titles that accompany it, but Celeste does not have to go through them all. She knows that they fit her magic a bit too well for it to be a coincidence. Her fury is notorious, there is a reason she was named the bonebreaker when in school. Though it’s been centuries since she actually went to school, she knows the title has stuck.

But it’s the Devastation title that child her. In the common language, it’s akin to destruction, but in magic, it’s not quite the same, it’s something far more insidious.

Destruction is the result of unchecked fury, of breaking things apart, ruining empires, and killing without mercy. When the Destroyer comes for you, you know the end is near. His anger has toppled empires in seconds. It’s swift, more painful than anything you could imagine, but it ends quickly.

Devastation, though, is different. She’s seen it firsthand, how her fury twists and lingers, long after the immediate damage. Her anger differs from just toppling buildings and causing a domino effect that turns empires to ash in seconds.

She’d caused a plague. Her magic had made them think the end was near, and then they’d healed. They’d healed and they’d been abandoned by their friends, for nothing is quite as terrifying as a Gods wrath. Then their harvest had been ruined, they’d been forced to starve, and resorted to begging from people who had shunned them.

No one had actually acknowledged the curse.

Her magic doesn’t simply destroy – it makes people suffer. That is the difference. Destruction cares only for annihilation, for turning things to dust. Devastation is about anguish, torment, and plight, and desperation.

Eternal damnation it may not be, but it sure as hell would feel like it.

She doesn’t feel any guilt over what she did. She never has. She hopes her soulmates don’t think less of her for it. She doubts Amalthea would, Slytherin that she is. 

But Celeste is a Gryffindor through and through – she ignores the voice in her head reminding her of the fact that she almost ended up in Hufflepuff – and she feels like she should feel bad, no matter how much they would have had it coming.

She shakes off the thought as she pulls the thin sheet off her. Her lips twitch as she remembers how the boys who had come to work here had protested, even as she glared at them and told them she couldn’t be bothered by the cold. She likes warmth, yes, but she’s naturally ice cold, and the day that changed was not coming soon.

They still see her as a child though, and she gets it, she doubts the scars and the tattoos help when she still looks thirteen. She thanks the Gods every day that she was freakishly tall at thirteen years old. Her height was the only thing saving her in the arguments.

They had given in eventually, but Celeste was hyper aware of the fact that they had all cast warming charms on her tent before heading to bed.

She swallows a laugh at the memory, and gets dressed. The dragons would wake up soon, and if she wasn’t there to calm them, the others would get hurt. It was one of the things that had given away what she was. Dragons tolerated Angels, but because they were cold, they didn’t like them very much. The same fact had not applied to Celeste.

When she was young, breeding them was still permissible, but very few did it, because dragons didn’t take kindly to being treated like common barnyard animals, no matter how much you fed them.

She had met her first dragon at Hogwarts, in her third year, the Professor had brought one along, a common welsh green. It was the size of a horse, but relatively docile, because the Professor had had the sense to put it near the lake, and tie it.

They weren’t allowed to get close, but the Professor had no morals and when Celeste had made her way towards the dragon, he’d simply sighed and told the rest of the class they were going to watch her die.

She still hated him six centuries later.

The dragon had not killed her. It hadn’t even tried to shoot flames at her. It had growled only when she reached for it but before she knew it the word obey was coming out of her mouth and the dragon was preening at her scratches a moment later.

Professor Wellse had never quite forgiven her for making him look like a fool.

She steps outside, her boots sinking into a bed of crisp, fallen leaves, each step releasing a soft crunch into the still morning. The air is sharp and cool, carrying the damp, earthy scent of pine and soil. If she focuses, she can catch the lingering traces of smoke and roasted meat from the drifting from the dragon's nests beyond the hills.

A thin veil of mist lingers over the fields, curling around her ankles as she moves. Celeste’s lips quirk into a knowing smile as she thinks about the newcomers' reactions. The mist isn’t ordinary; it rises from the dragons, their heat forming vapour from the cold morning air. The sight always leaves the newcomers spellbound, staring in quiet wonder. It never fails to amuse her.

The horizon is painted in soft hues of pink and gold, the last traces of the night still clinging to the sky in deep blue and scattered stars. The first light of dawn falls over the hills, stretching long shadows across the land.

A low rumbling call echoes from the distant cliffs, deep and ancient. Celeste halts in her tracks, tilting her head as another voice rises in response, this one softer, closer. The dragons are waking.

She inhales, a slow, contented breath.

Today will be a good day.

She thinks back at the dream of the girl forced to fight, and she exhales.

When I find you, I will make you one of the most revered things on the planet.

I swear it.

a/n: As always, hope you enjoyed! If you notice any mistakes please let me know, and leave a comment if you can because I love to chat! Like I'm begging i need people to talk to about this it's kinda the only reason I published it. It was becoming a problem.

Ao3 link here

[laufeysvalentine]

i want you. pt 2, remus lupin

intertwined, sewn together

remus lupin x fem!reader | masterlist, pt 1

summary ༄ remus x best friend!reader -- the aftermath of you accidentally confessing your love for remus and running away, hurt/comfort, fluff

word count ༄ 4.1k

nora’s notes ༄ so sorry for the delay on this, thank you so so so much for all the love on the first part and for 200 followers??? that's gen insane i love all of you 💘 i haven't proofread so pls excuse grammar

you’ve barely gotten a wink of sleep next morning, and it shows. you finally crash in the morning to sleep through breakfast and lunch. 

at two, you’re up, but barely. you feel like absolute shit. the feeling only worsens when lily comes in, pity in her face. she knows what happened, and the pity only means one thing–there’s a reason he hasn’t come by, and it’s not because he’s in love with you. 

burying your head in your pillow, you let out a loud groan. 

“y/n?” she pulls back your covers and offers a plate up to you. “remus brought this for you, cause you weren’t at breakfast or lunch.” 

“don’t say his name in my presence,” you beg her, only half-joking. the plate she brought has all your favorite foods from the great hall, and you hate that remus knows you so well, well enough to pick them out. 

“he wants to talk to you,” she says once she’s sat on her own bed a few feet from you. “he just didn’t want to cross your boundaries. i’ll tell him off if you’d like, just let me know.” 

“i love you, lily, but it’s not necessary. it’s not his fault half of hogwarts loves him and the prettiest girl out there fell to his feet,” you huff, a sadness leaking out of you. you want to blame him. but really, you can’t. “he didn’t do anything wrong. i guess.” 

lily’s eyebrow raises as she waits for you to elaborate. “he did make you fall to his feet, didn’t he.” 

“you know who i’m talking about.” as if you could compare to celeste… although you’re pleased with the compliment. “and i’m still mad.” 

“you have every right to be,” she concedes, mouth open to say something when the door bursts open, carrying in a flustered marlene. 

“please, y/n, i’m begging you. do something about him. he’s run off and sirius can’t find him, so he’s bugged james about it who’s bugging me, and i can’t take it anymore.” her cheeks are flushed, begging, but you can’t bring yourself to listen to her. “i’d never do this to you, but i’ll truly rip my ears off for another moment of this.” 

“marlene.” lily’s glaring at the blonde, grabbing her by the elbow. “don’t listen to her, y/n. do whatever you want.” 

as much as you feel bad, you’re not ready. you don’t want to face him, like, ever. 

and that’s what you resolve to do for the whole next week. knowing remus, he would never make you uncomfortable, not on purpose, at least, but he knows you too well to make you uncomfortable by accident. so, three days later, when you stumble into breakfast with approximately thirty minutes of sleep and bags suitcases under your eyes to match it and choose the seat farthest away from him, he doesn’t move closer to you. 

still, you feel his eyes on you the whole time, but you just stare down at your plate, making pictures with the eggs and ketchup. while half-listening to marlene’s blabbering, you craft a smiley face, then a frowny face to match your mood, a mickey mouse, and then this girl that you hate for no reason because she’s really not hateable at all you just hate her because she kissed this guy who’s your best friend but technically you’re not even dating you’re just in love with him. fuck. you push away the eggs and glance around the table. the first thing you notice is him noticing you–it’s the first day you’ve not felt too lovesick and heartbroken to ditch class and meals, for risk of seeing him, so your presence speaks for itself. even then, every morning you wake up to an artfully arranged plate outside your door, laden with your favorite foods. the same comes for lunch and dinner, and you’re not stupid. you know he sends them. 

but you can’t talk to him. not now that you know he’s not in love with you like you are with him, at least not as much. he might even like celeste by now. not “might,” he probably does. you wouldn’t hold it against him. they would be beautiful together. a fresh round of nausea sloshes into the walls of your gut. 

when you deem it socially appropriate to leave, you take the chance, getting up with the masses heading to class, trying to slip through the crowd to avoid him. 

“y/n,” sirius croons from your right, so close you can feel his hot breath on your ears, and your heart sinks. where sirius is, the marauders are soon to follow. “oh, how i missed you this past eternity.” 

you grimace at him, pushing his cheek away from your face. “hi, padfoot. it’s been three days.” 

“and what days they’ve been!” he proclaims dramatically, slinging an arm around your shoulder and pretending to faint. 

“siri. i’m not in the mood.” you mutter, slipping out from under his arm, chancing a glance behind you to make sure the blond you would recognize anywhere is not here. you’re in the clear for now, you’ve no clue where he, peter, and james have gone or why they’re so far from sirius. 

he senses your mood shift and transforms into serious sirius. “you need to get back with moony.” 

when you blow out a heavy breath, your hair flies forwards and hangs limply on your face. “a, as i said, it’s been like three days. b, we were never together so i can’t ‘get back’ with him. c, and listen carefully when i say this, i don’t want to.” he doesn’t want me are the words you leave sour and dormant on your tongue. 

“but, y/n,” he pouts. “he really misses you, even if it’s only been a little while. he’s a wreck, knowing he made you cry.” 

you’ve heard enough. of course. this is why the marauders aren’t near him. it’s a ploy, an intervention if you may. 

“no, don’t even.” you pull away from him and push through the throngs of students to get away from him. you toss out a parting over your shoulder before slipping away, “i’ll see you in class.” 

just kidding. you sneak back into your dorm and let the blankets swallow you, watching the ceiling to pass the time. remus is not in love with you. he never will be. 

as you count the amount of nicks in the ceiling paint for the forty-hundredth time, you think about him again. as you have for the past eight years. 

even if he’s not in love with you–you can’t imagine a life without him. you can’t sacrifice your friendship, all those friendly touches, the feeling of his warm hand splayed against your back, the sight of him curled in his bed with his newest book. how could you never discuss your favorite books with him again? how could you sacrifice that golden look that makes you melt over as you speak? those perfectly brewed cups of tea, vanilla-scented sweaters, knitted thickly with love? 

he’s your best friend. the answer is, you could never live without him. even if you’re in love with him and he’s not, in fact, in love with you back. you’ll just have to get over it. 

whoever painted this ceiling left fourteen cracks. 

–

you’re going to get over him, you swear it. this is what you repeat as you walk into the great hall, your eyes trained on the ground, slipping into the seat next to lily. you refuse to look at him or any of his friends. you won’t. you can’t. 

it’s the first time you’re here. sure, you came by the table this morning, but drawing pictures with ketchup until the whole plate looks like you murdered the bottle isn’t exactly engaging. now, you and marlene are conversing about stupid things: the shoes you need in your wardrobe, your favorite song to listen to while crying in the shower vs. in your bed. and important questions, like what’s better, milk or dark chocolate (dark chocolate, obviously, and don’t even think about saying white chocolate. that is not real chocolate)? 

you can feel his eyes on you, drilling almond brown holes into your skull. the urge to look up chokes you. you want to see the curve of his smile, how lopsided it leans on him, the scars that dance around his lips. but you steel yourself. you can’t. you won’t. 

–

you’re ignoring him. the problem is, it’s not really working. 

no matter where you are, you can feel his eyes on you; even if you’re across the classroom, you swear you can smell the earthiness of his cologne, his sweaters. 

fuck. 

you are not getting over him anytime soon. 

the two of you manage to avoid any contact for what feels like months–days, maybe. in the hallways, you brush past each other, sometimes mumbling an apology or two as you pass. nothing sincere. nothing short of incredibly, incredibly awkward. 

you tuck yourself into hidden corners of the library, the astronomy tower, the room of requirement, anywhere where you can get away. from him, from the scary softness of sirius’ eyes when he looks at you, the even more terrifying relative quiet from marlene, who was seemingly instructed to give you space by lily. everything is awkward. and it’s all your fault. 

when the glances stares fade, you know why, and you hate yourself for knowing. the full moon’s nearing. remus’ shoulders are sagging, his looks come from lower down. his body is aching more and more, he twists around nearly every class you have together, something you know he’s always done to try and alleviate some pain. his undereyes are bruised and swollen, and you see the brass of his cane around the common room, and you hate that you aren’t there for him. he hates that thing, he always tries to avoid using it. 

it must be especially bad this time around. 

and when lily comes into your dorm the day before the full moon, skin sunken with exhaustion, you figure something’s up. 

“lily?” you ask, jolting up from your book. the mug of tea that he drank the night you stopped talking is still by your bedside. you can’t bring yourself to move it. what if that’s your last memory with him? 

“hm?” she murmurs, flopping onto her bed. 

“what’s wrong?” you ask as you turn your body towards hers. 

she waves her head, face in the pillow. 

“you can talk to me about him,” you frown. “it’s related to him, isn’t it? the full moon?” 

the redhead sits up, looks at you. she’s not one to lie, never has been. “...yeah. james is just stressed, because he thinks this transformation has already been really painful for him, and it’s only going to get worse tomorrow.” 

your head is bobbing. you swallow your feelings–what is that, guilt? shame? you don’t know what. maybe celeste broke up with him. not everything is related to you. 

“mhm,” you say in response. absorbing. 

she hesitates, mouth opening, before shutting it again. “it’s–well, i don’t…” 

you shrug. “you don’t have to say anything, lily.” 

so she doesn’t. 

—

lily’s right. in the eight years you’ve known him, he has never looked so rough pre-transition. you steal peeks at him all day, like he’s a tv show you weren’t supposed to watch as a kid. it looks like the life is steaming out of him. his hair–artfully messy, as always—is mussed and unwashed. when he walks out of the classroom, it’s a limp, with a slow clunk to it that makes your chest hurt. you want nothing more than to rush over and help him, but no. if he wanted you, well, if he didn’t want celeste, he would have come after you. 

he doesn’t want you. you repeat that to yourself when you see him almost pass out onto his plate during lunch, making a worried sirius (yes, sirius of all people, who usually tries to stay calm in situations like these) rush him to his dorm. 

but he reappears only an hour later for potions, when his back is tensed, tight, and his shoulders are hunched over. slughorn tries to call on him twice, but he pretends he isn’t there. 

your chest aches when he doesn’t show up to dinner, and halfway through, the rest of the marauders disappear, muttering to themselves as they go. you rub your collarbone and watch, your anxiety heightened. 

once the great halls door slam, the first place your eyes dart to is the hufflepuff table. you don’t even need to look around to see her. everyone within a ten-person vicinity is ever so slightly turned towards her, like her charisma is impossible to ignore. they want to be her, be with her, know her. 

she’s speaking animatedly, tossing out an airy laugh now and then. maybe remus hasn’t told her yet. 

some evil, petty part of you relishes in that fact. 

the girls are watching you, eyes wide and lips pursed. they’re trying to read you, determine how you’re feeling. dorcas, of all people, has been checking in on you everyday since you and remus fell out, and marlene too, in her own sarcastic way. but seeing them together made you ache for a cavity that could never be filled. a gryffindor love, a spectacular love. one that existed in your if onlys. 

you head straight to your room after dinner to try and throw yourself into your homework, but the distraction doesn’t work. you can’t stop thinking about remus. is he okay? you wish you could be with him. why did you start ignoring him in the first place? 

as the stars fade into the sky, lily bursts through the door, mary an hour later. marlene sneaks in, then out, then in again, with dorcas by her hand. but as time ticks, ticks, ticks, you can’t stop from looking at it. you’re the only one awake now, but the marauders probably aren’t back yet. 

you try your hardest to battle the reluctance that accompanies you to your bed, but you can’t. you just lie there, body tensed as images of remus run through your mind. the two of you visiting his hometown, or him on your lap, your favorite place for him to be. you’ll never forget the feeling of his coarse hair against the lilting touch of your fingers, or how he would turn onto his side, nose bumping against your stomach as he nuzzled into you. 

after waiting what feels like hours, you check the clock. yes. he’s back now. you rise as quietly as you can, slipping out of the dorms and darting towards the hospital room. is he okay? 

madam pomfrey is nowhere to be seen, and as you pass blue curtain to blue curtain, all you can hear is your shuffling. no one’s here–save for one figure on the end, flat on their back, moonlight filtering through the window above them. 

it hugs him in a most flattering light, his eyes closed and relaxed. fuck, he’s already sleeping. you don’t know if you should be happy he won’t see you or not. on your tiptoes, you creep towards his bed, where there’s a chair on his right. when you touch it, it’s still warm. the marauders must have just left. 

here he is. remus lupin. 

your eyes scan his face and arms, any body part that’s left out from the blankets. he has a fresh cut running from his elbow upwards, through where his t-shirt curls around his bicep. for someone with such fresh scars, he looks so, so beautiful. 

the second you sit down on the chair, his eyes fly open. 

oh. 

he wasn’t sleeping after all. 

perhaps the most awkward minute of your life passes, the two of you just staring at each other. your lips are parted, limbs frozen, anticipating. 

“rem?” you squeak out, reaching out to touch him as you usually would. you want to trace the scar that runs down his cheek, but he pulls away, muttering. 

without even acknowledging you, he turns on his side, burying his head into the pillow. 

“oh,” you breathe. he doesn’t want you there. you’re so stupid. why the hell would you come here? you know he likes celeste. you saw them kissing for merlin’s sake. 

you’re trying your best to stifle a gasp as your eyes become sticky with tears. what the fuck were you thinking? 

“stop it. just stop it,” he groans. “why are you bothering me again?” 

your limbs are stuck in place. for some reason, you can’t think, move. your thoughts are spinning in circles, racing around your mind. nothing’s coherent right now. 

you look at him again, his muscles shifting against the cotton of his t-shirt, and swallow. this is goodbye, isn’t it? your lips twist. 

“i-i’m sorry. i know you probably want to get your rest, i’ll just–” you have to force yourself to stand up, but when you do, your hand accidentally brushes his back on the small bed, and he jerks back, electrocuted. “oh, i–sorry.” 

he jolts upright, hands on the bed to support him. “dove?” 

you pause your movements, unsure what to do. he knew who you were before, didn’t he? what happened? 

maybe he’s just delirious from lack of sleep. you begin to walk away when a warm hand wraps around your wrist, drawing you backwards. 

“y/n. i–” he stops when you face him, and you can see the exact moment he sees the tears in your eyes, as he pulls you onto the bed, thumb sweeping the wetness under your eye like it’s second nature. his palm, rough with calluses and scars, supports the softness of your cheek, and you melt. “you’re here. you’re really here?” 

his eyes, that soft amber, spilling over with uncertainty and… regret? the same way he would look after one of the marauders’ particularly nasty pranks, or snapping at one of his friends close to the full moon. 

you nod, shoulders tense. “i just wanted to come stop by. i didn’t mean to–”

“no, no,” he interrupts, his other hand coming up to rub your arm. “i’m sorry. i didn’t… i’ve just been having, er, i’ve been having dreams of you all week. i thought you weren’t real.” 

his face is sparkling with earnestness, a kind of hope you hadn’t seen on him in a while. when you don’t say anything, he takes it as a cue to continue. “i’m also sorry for everything. i thought you wouldn’t want to see me anymore. or… i don’t know.” 

“it’s okay, rem,” you promise, trying to build up the cracks threatening to crumble your voice and your resolve. you try to pull away from his touch, but his fingers just find your knee instead, massaging the flesh there. “i didn’t want to get between you and celeste or anything. it seemed like the right thing to do.” the last part of your voice comes out in a throaty whisper. 

“no.” he says firmly. 

“no?” you ask, shoulders crawling towards your shoulders. 

“no. i want you in my life, dove, always. i–celeste and i aren’t anything. i don’t like her. i never did.” his voice peters out, but his gaze on you stays strong. “there’s another girl.” 

does he hate you? want to kill you? because that’s sure what he’s doing right now, and he knows you too well to not know the effect he’s having on you. like he took the sword of gryffindor and peeked it into your chest–not enough to kill you by brunt force, but enough to maim, to let you bleed out onto the bed as you stare at him, betrayal tearing open your veins. 

“that’s nice, remus.” you don’t even know how words are coming out of your mouth at this point. maybe someone’s taken over your body? 

“i’m sorry for not coming up to you, too. i thought it was the right thing to do,” he says quietly, one of his hands dropping from your face. goosebumps follow where his skin met yours. you think the next sound you hear is the crack crack cracking of your heart. “i thought you wanted space from me. and you deserve that. i only let her kiss me cause… well, cause i thought i had to get over you.” 

what?

he’s gauging your expression, you can feel it, but again, everything’s spinning. you might pass out. what’s happening? who is this other girl he loves? 

“i’ve loved you for so long, but i thought there was never a chance that you could love me back. and then, there was that day. but, you’re you, the most gorgeous girl in all of gryffindor, and then there was me. you deserve so much better than me and how fucked up i am. so i left you alone. i thought it was right.” he glances to the side, bringing his hands to his lap. this is not real. you’re not real. he was right. this was a dream, and any minute this floaty feeling will stop and you won’t feel like you can’t feel your body and you’ll wake up hear your alarm and class will start it’s not real it’s not real it’s not real. 

but your hand reaches out to his, shaking. and the next words that tumble out of your lips are: “y-you love me?” 

“how could i not?” a laugh slips from his mouth and those eyes–those beautiful, beautiful eyes–are back on you and you can’t swallow breathe think nothing but those eyes, those sweet eyes. 

your mouth hangs open. “but…” 

“i’m sorry, y/n. and i don’t know if it’s too late, if you’ve found someone better, but i couldn’t ever leave you thinking that i don’t love you back. anyone who didn’t is a fool. an utter fool.” remus scratches at his jaw, lips pursed. “sorry. i just had to say it.” 

“you love me,” you repeat, looking at him. “you love me?” 

“i always have and i always will. loving you is a part of me, dove, the best part of me there’s ever been.” he sucks in a breath, brings your hand to his lips. when he speaks, you can feel the vibrations of his voice on your skin. “i love you so much.” 

you don’t even realize you’re crying until a tear splashes onto his cheek. you move to touch it, leaning closer to his face as your finger smooths the tear out onto his pretty skin. and then–then, oh, god, you’re so close to him. his breath is so warm. he smells so, so good. 

“can i kiss you, dove?” he asks so softly that you almost don’t hear him–you’re not even sure you do, it might just be instinct that pushes your lips together. something written into your body from birth. you were meant to be his, he yours. 

and merlin, he tastes better than you ever could have imagined. 

remus. your remus. 

a smile spreads across your lips after your next kiss, slow and so, overwhelmingly perfect. he pecks your teeth, your nose. 

“remus,” you say, but a small giggle escapes you before you can finish your sentence. this is surreal. what’s happening right now? are we sure this isn’t a dream? “what are we doing?” 

“kissing, dovey,” he answers with another kiss. “and, maybe, if you wanted, i could be yours?” 

“you’ve always been mine, rem,” you respond solemnly, and he tugs you down next to him, pulling your body under the covers so you’re flush next to him. “only now i can kiss you.” 

his palms come up to your cheeks, one to your hair, and again, the two of you connect–by your lips, sure, but also by you. you’ve connected, there’s no breaking it now. 

“and all of that you were saying?” you pull back every so slightly to look at him, to know him. “you are the most perfect soul i could ever ask for. i want you to tell me every time you feel like you don’t deserve me, because that’s just untrue. you deserve everything and more, and you are so perfect for me, i can’t even fathom how you exist.” 

at that, he pulls you back into him, plants and plants and plants his lips on your face. “there’s no part of me that doesn’t love you, dove. my heart, my mouth, my soul. all of me.” 

and when you’re too tired to kiss any longer, if that concept even exists, you fall asleep leg between his, nose pressed into crease between his neck and jaw, arms around each other, intertwined with him for the night–though, in a way, you always have been. and you always will be. 

masterlist

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[lumosinlove]

Vaincre

Link to Ao3

~

june part viii

“Hold on, hold—What did you say?”

Sirius stepped out onto the moonlit porch of the cottage and put a finger over his free ear—as if it was his fault he could barely hear the words his little brother was saying. Regulus’ call had come half-way through washing up after dinner, Julian begging for a nighttime game of pick-up, and Hope laughing at Remus for eating the last of the apple pie straight from the dish. He’d assumed he was calling about travel plans, but he hadn’t expected the thumping music in the background or cacophony of laughing voices. 

“I said I’m driving up day after tomorrow,” Regulus shouted, then laughed at something and said hello to someone, telling them to make themselves at home.

Sirius briefly wondered where he’d picked up the phrase and learned to use it so easily. It wasn’t like they’d heard it much. Make yourself at home. Instantly, Sirius thought of that basement bedroom at Pascal’s, and their warm kitchen—the kids doing homework, Celeste and Pascal cooking. Sirius, you don’t have to ask for water or anything else. Please, help yourself.

“I know that,” Sirius shouted back to Regulus, even though he probably didn’t have to. “You—ouais, you already told me that?”

“Oh. I did? Okay!”

“Ouais, I—” Sirius turned as Remus’ face appeared through the screen door, a questioning look on his face.

“You good?” Remus asked. “You’re yelling?”

Sirius pulled the phone away a bit. “I think my brother is drunk calling me.” He pressed the speaker back to his cheek. “Are you okay?”

Remus, obviously trying not to laugh, retreated back into the house.

“I just wanted to call,” Regulus shouted in his ear. “I just wanted to say, see you soon. Just wanted to say I’m glad this is—”

There was a long pull of silence, during which Sirius couldn’t tell if Regulus was talking to someone else, had dropped his phone perhaps, or was just thinking.

“I’m glad…” He began finally. “I mean, I’m glad these things happened.”

He didn’t sound drunk, Sirius supposed. He just sounded…unsure.

“What things?” Sirius asked.

“Everything.”

“What?”

“I just wanted to call you! And hear your voice, Sirius, fuck.”

“Why? Are you okay?”

More cursing, a blend of French and English. “Yes. Nothing has to be wrong for me to want to talk to you.”

“I…Ouais, okay.”

It seemed like he had moved somewhere quieter, but only by a bit. There was still music, low and filled with quick-lyrics, and Sirius caught passing parts of English conversations. Sirius picked out one voice, a girl, who said Regulus’ name and find me later.

“Who is that?” Sirius asked, then felt stupid.

Regulus didn’t hear him, busy telling the girl something before the speaker rustled, back against his ear.

“So. Finn and Alex go running every day,” Regulus shouted over the music. “I mean, when they can. When they’re in the same city.”

Sirius hadn’t known that, but, then again, Regulus probably spent more time with the Cubs. He should stop thinking of them as the Cubs. That had been Finn and Logan during their rookie seasons, and then Leo, but they didn’t really deserve that anymore. Especially not with a Cup.

“I—That’s nice.” Sirius looked towards the lake. The waves were soft tonight. All the boats had long gone home. Did he want to go running together? “I thought you were sort of done with…”

“No, I don’t want to run, I just…”

For the next few seconds, and Sirius pulled his phone back to watch some of the time go by on the screen, there was more silence. This was their way. He wished it wasn’t, he wished he had the right words to fill every part of his brother’s mind until he could cancel out all the wrong ones. But half-finished sentences it was. Half-thoughts that somehow found completion once they both stuttered and tried a few dozen times.

“I’m just saying,” Regulus said. “I’m just saying that when I get there, I’m your brother not your house guest.”

Sirius looked back towards the screen door at that, hoping Remus would be there. House guest? What did that mean?

“Did that sound bad?” Regulus said loudly.

“Non,” Sirius said. “I—non. I don’t—okay.” He was sort of panicking. Dumo would have known what to say. “I’m—sorry.”

“Non. C’est—Non. I’m saying it all wrong.”

Finn and Alex run. House guest.

“I…” Sirius cleared his throat. “Reg, I can barely hear you. I don’t know…I don’t know what else… I didn’t mean to make you feel like we’re…”

Not as good as other brothers.

“I just mean.” Over everything, he did hear the breath Regulus let out. Someone else said his name through a laugh and a hello. “Hi, yeah, come on in.”

Sirius waited, unsure how to have this conversation with music and other people right there.

“I should probably go,” Regulus said. “Sorry, I know you’re with everyone. And I know I’m—it’s loud, sorry. I don’t know.”

“I’m not with everyone,” Sirius said.

“Ha, right.”

Something definitely took a tumble in the background. The music soared up, louder, and Regulus cursed.

“Shit,” he said. “Sorry! Someone—Sirius?”

“I’m here,” Sirius said. “I’m right here.”

“I should…” The next words, shouted like they were talking to each other over a windstorm, still hit Sirius somewhere soft and gentle. “Hey, I get to stand next to you, right? On the day? Your day.”

Sirius pressed a hand over his chest and found the lake blurring through what must be a few tears. That. That had surprised him. It probably shouldn’t have.

“Please,” Sirius said, then laughed a little when Regulus did. “Yeah, you’ll stand next to me.”

“Good. Okay, good.” Someone else said Regulus’ name.

Sirius realized he still thought of him as his quiet brother, half pressed against the sides of rooms so nothing could surprise him.

He felt only pure relief in realizing that wasn’t true anymore.

“I love you,” Regulus said suddenly, a gasp of breath almost. “So. Yeah, I do. And I’ll see you soon.”

“I—see you soon,” Sirius said, staring, unseeing, at the lake. “I love you, too, Reg.”

He sort of forgot to go back inside. He didn’t know how long he’d been sitting on the top porch step until a blanket appeared around his shoulders and Remus sat down close enough to press their hips and shoulders together.

“Is he okay?” Remus asked. “You’ve been out here for a while, I couldn’t tell if you were still on the phone.”

“Sorry,” Sirius said. “I didn’t help with dishes.”

“More than enough hands for that.” Remus turned Sirius’ hand over and traced a line of his palm with his thumb. “Everyone’s gone up to bed.”

“He just said he…” Sirius cleared his throat. “He just wanted to call me.”

Remus nodded. “Okay…Is he all good?”

Sirius nodded. “Yeah, he—he said Finn and Alex go running together when they’re in the same city. And that when he gets here, I should treat him like a brother? Not like a house guest?”

Remus laughed, just a little. “Well, okay, then. Blunt, as usual.”

“I have no idea what any of it meant.” Sirius rubbed a hand through his hair. “I don’t think he was actually drunk? I mean, I don’t know.”

“Sounds like he wants to spend time with you.”

Sirius shook his head, bewildered. “Sounds like he wishes we were Finn and Alex. Merde, or you and Jules. I don’t…”

“No,” Remus said, hand hooking over Sirius’ shoulder. He rested his chin there, too.

“Yes.” Sirius sighed. “I don’t know. He was so… He has all of these friends, and then he said he loved me, and asked if he gets to stand next to me. I thought—I mean, of course?”

“Did you tell him that?”

“Yes.”

“No, I mean before.”

“Well—Before when?”

Remus squeezed his arm. “He might have thought you’d choose James. Or Pascal. Julian said he thought I was going to choose Thomas when I told him he’d be next to me.” Sirius felt Remus’ quiet laugh against his neck. “Then he googled weddings and got all freaked out I was going to make him give a speech.”

Sirius smiled. “Oh God, Reg is not going to give a speech, there’s no way.”

“That’s fine,” Remus said. “We have a lot of people who are going to want to say something. I went with my dad and sorted out the whole music, sound-system situation today. I don’t know if we’re going to be able to stop potential karaoke.”

“Oh God. James.”

“Yeah.”

“Finn.”

“What, you’re not going to sing me a song, Black?”

“There’s a lot of things I’ll do for you…That’s maybe not one.”

“Well, damn.”

“Unless you…like, really want me to.”

“I would never torture you like that.”

Sirius pressed his smile into Remus’ cheek, enjoying the way Remus leaned further against him. Something made the nearby waves pick up, and Sirius closed his eyes, suddenly wanting to be in their room with the windows open, listening to them as they fell asleep.

“We owe your entire family a vacation,” Sirius said. “A long one.”

“For real, though,” Remus laughed. When Sirius put his hand out, Remus laced their fingers together. “Hey.”

Sirius looked down at him. He had more freckles than Sirius had ever seen him with. They dotted across his nose and cheeks. They would be there for their wedding photographs. Something about them made Remus look like he had when Sirius had first met him in his Lions staff jacket. Hi, Sirius? I’m Remus Lupin. Is there anything I can do for you?

Remus hooked a finger in the neck of his shirt, pulling his attention back to right then.

“You’re the one who found a whole new sort of family,” Remus said. “It’s good Regulus is doing that, too.”

“I know.”

“And you’re doing it again. You’re my family and we’re yours. That includes Reg—believe me. If you don’t make him know it, my mom will.”

Sirius smiled. “Hope Lupin versus Regulus Black. That—oh, what’s the thing your dad says?”

“Which thing?”

“Ah…” Sirius squinted upwards, carding a hand through Remus’ hair. “Oh. We love to see it.”

Remus tilted his head back, laughing. “We love to see it. Oh my God. You’re funny that you remember that.”

They leaned their heads together. The waves had quieted. Sirius watched Remus’ thumb make slow tracks over his knuckles and wrist. The woods around them rustled, and a cluster of crickets sang somewhere close by. Sirius still couldn’t believe how many stars he could see here.

“I know we just said how much help we’re getting with wedding things,” Remus said quietly. “And that we owe them a vacation, so we should probably stick around. But…”

“But?” Sirius said, then he couldn’t help himself anymore and leaned in to kiss Remus. He made a soft, happy sound. Sirius pressed his thumb over his engagement ring.

“Do you maybe,” Remus hardly leaned away to speak, “want to drive somewhere tomorrow?”

“Just us,” Sirius said, and kissed him again, then again, in time with the hush of the lake’s shore.

“Just us.”

~

“No.”

Finn laughed as he reached the end of the pier before Alex, catching himself on the railing. He pulled back, letting himself hold on by his fingertips as he tilted his head up to the sky and let out a whoop.

“I win,” he shouted. “I fucking win.”

“I let you win,” Alex panted. He had his hands on his knees and was trying to blink sweat out of his eyes. “Tell me, who’s in the playoffs right now and needs to conserve their strength? Oh yeah. Me.”

“Fuck off,” Finn said. “I’m not even out of breath.”

“That’s because you’re a freak.”

Finn reached forward and flicked the bill of Alex’s cap up, knocking it to the ground.

Alex swiped at him, making to hit him in the groin, but Finn jumped back, out of reach. Alex scowled as he picked up his hat.

Finn turned back towards the water. The day’s heat was catching on now and he adjusted his own cap, pushing his sweaty hair back.

“No training today, right?” Finn asked.

“Nope.” Alex came to stand beside him. “Day off. Tomorrow, though. Morning’s optional. Do you know if Tremz is going?”

“I’ll ask him.”

They walked in the sun until they could cross back across the road and the smooth pavement of the river paths turned into the West Village’s cobblestones. There was a cluster of dogs outside of their regular coffee shop and Finn saw Alex snap a photograph of a particularly glossy golden retriever and send it off to Kasey.

“Are you bringing breakfast back or are they meeting you?” Alex asked.

“Lo’s probably sleeping still—bringing back.”

Alex nodded. “Do you—like urgently, or—Want to sit for a bit?”

Finn raised his eyebrows. “Yeah, I wanna sit. Are you okay?”

Alex turned his hat backwards as they went inside the shop. “Why?”

“You just started three different sentences.”

Alex kept his eyes on the menu. “I just—What are you poking me for, I want to have coffee with you, I’m being nice.”

Finn put his hands up. “Okay. Be nice, then.”

They ordered and found a table out front, so small they had to sit side-by-side to avoid being in the middle of the sidewalk. It was half in the shade of a tree and in the shadow of a row of Citi Bikes. Finn watched Alex fidget with his straw.

“How’s your shoulder?” Finn asked.

“What? Oh, fine. Just one of those things. Doesn’t bother me enough to bother me.”

Finn nodded. “Yeah. Lo’s got that with one of his calves. Doesn’t bother him on the ice but at home he’s all—you know. Harz, Le, can you get that, my leg.”

Alex laughed. “Let me guess. You get it for him.”

“So what if we do?”

“Shocker.”

Finn laughed, shaking the ice cubes around in his cup. “Whatever.”

They watched two beagles pass by, one coming over to sniff intently at Finn’s shoe. Finn asked if he could pet them, mostly trying to give Alex a moment to say whatever he wasn’t saying. He ran his palm over the dog’s soft ears, smiled at the warm kisses of its tongue against his wrist, and nodded his thanks to the owner who continued on.

“They’re not getting married. Yet.”

Finn watched the dogs go for another moment. Their white-tipped tails swished happily in unison. Twins. Brothers.

Finn turned back in his seat and took a sip of his coffee. Alex was looking at him out of the corner of his eye. He had one of his knees bouncing. When it rattled the table, he stopped.

“Hello?” Alex sighed.

Finn put an arm around him and pulled them together. The bill of Alex’s hat, low on the back of his neck, bumped into Finn’s nose, but Finn just held on tighter.

“Al…” Finn squeezed him hard. “Thank God, fuck.”

“I—yeah.” Alex sighed, slumping into him a little. “Guess you were right. I was worried. And sad.”

“I know,” Finn said. He pulled back. “How is everything now?”

Alex laughed, rubbing at his jaw. “Fuck. So much better. It’s like I was using half my lungs or something.”

“Don’t I know that feeling.”

“Yeah, what is up with us?”

“Mm…I don’t know. Maybe mom knows.”

Alex shook his head like he was still clearing the fog of these last months. He turned his face up towards the sunlight coming through the trees. “Yeah, she probably knows. Anyway…”

Finn raised his eyebrows and Alex shrugged.

“There you have it,” Alex said.

“There you have it? C’mon, how’d it go down?”

Alex groaned. “It went down, that’s all that matters.”

“Alex. What happened to telling each other things?”

“There’s nothing to tell. Natalie and I talked and then Kasey and I talked and—I don’t know, I confessed?”

“Al.”

“And I cried.” Alex slapped his hand to his thigh, laughing a little. “Which was—nice. But embarrassing.” He messed with his straw again, the paper scratching against the plastic lid. “I don’t think I even—really knew how worried I was. I think I assumed they would get tired of me. And I was just going to have to be okay with that.”

“I’ll beat up anyone who thinks they could get tired of you.”

Alex smiled slightly. “I’m glad I was wrong.”

“O’Haras don’t do sometimes. We’re all-day-every-day.”

“Ha, yeah. I guess that’s true.”

“So, you’re spending the summer together?”

“Yeah, gonna go to California, train with one of Kase and I’s old teammates. See Natalie’s family. What are you guys doing after the wedding?”

“France,” Finn said. “New Orleans.”

“Fancy you.”

Finn smiled. “Lo’s hoping for a Cup day in August, obviously, and he wants to bring it to Harvard with Percy and Will.”

“You gonna go?”

Finn nodded. “I want to take Leo all around. I mean…If he wants. I think he’ll like it? But I don’t want it to feel like…”

“‘Here are all the things we did without you?’”

“Yeah, exactly.” Finn stretched his legs out under the table. “I want—I’d mean it like, look, this is special now because you’re here, too. I mean, it was special before with just Lo, but it was also just…”

“Sad,” Alex finished.

“Yeah.” Finn laughed. “Are you going to finish all my—”

“Sentences.”

“Al—”

“—ex, stop,” Alex wined, then laughed loudly when Finn punched his arm.

“Okay, I’m done having coffee with you.”

Alex laughed and stood up. “Yeah, yeah, if you don’t get Tremz his chocolate he’ll bite you.”

“I mean, you’re—”

“—not wrong,” Alex said, then jumped out of Finn’s reach.

“Alex.”

“Okay, okay.” Alex lifted an arm and pulled Finn in. “See you later, yeah?” He pulled back and flicked his forehead. “Love you, Fish.”

Finn squinted one eye closed. “If you say so.”

Finn waited until Alex was halfway down the street, fishing his keys out of his pocket.

“I love you, too!” Finn shouted.

Alex turned to laugh, shaking his head.

Finn shut the front door to Logan’s apartment as quietly as he could. He set the croissant bag down on the counter, along with his keys and wallet, humming as he went. There were signs that Leo had been awake. Some coffee in the glass pour-over container, and his phone on the counter.

“Of course you and Remus are both morning hummers.”

Finn turned sharply towards the living room. “Whoa.”

Regulus’ sharp smile flashed and faded from where he sat on their couch. “Hey there.”

“Hi. Sorry.”

“No, my bad, I should have said something.”

“No. I mean—all good.” Finn took down a plate for the pastries. “Does morning hummer mean what I think it means?”

Regulus raised his eyebrows. “Uh. I don’t know. What does it mean?”

“Well…” Finn glanced in the direction of the bedroom. “Well, what do you think it mea—”

“Let’s just drop it.”

“Yeah, good idea.” Finn took a sip of his coffee. “If I’d known you were coming over, I’d have brought you something.”

“It’s all right,” Regulus said. “Leo said I are getting breakfast before I head up to Remus’ lake house tomorrow.”

“Ah, yes. Wedding. Best man, right?”

“I think James thinks he is, but it’s me.”

“Of course it’s you!” Leo emerged from the direction of the bedrooms, freshly showered, and pressed a kiss to Finn’s cheek. “Morning, Harz. You look so cute. Little tomato.”

“Thanks? I think.” He twisted Leo’s gray streak, still damp, once around his finger. “Sleep okay?”

“Second half of the night, yeah.” Leo let Finn run a hand over his hair, eyes closing happily. “How’s Alex?”

“He’s good. I beat him home, so, ha.” Finn put a thumb over Leo’s bottom lip. “Where’s our pet hockey player?”

Leo laughed, took his hand, and kissed it. “Still snoozing.”

Yes. Finn set the plate down. “Cool. I’m going to…” He glanced at Regulus. “Go say hi to him and then shower.”

“Say hi to him?” Leo repeated with a snort. “Okay, call it what you want, I guess. Reg and I are getting breakfast. Oh, and I think we’re going to his friend’s birthday party tonight—you wanna come?”

“Love to.” Finn looked at Regulus. “Is that okay?”

“Of course it’s okay,” Regulus said, standing. “Logan, too, if he wants.”

“We’ll see if he feels like he’s gotta lie low,” Leo said. He shrugged at Finn who nodded. Then Leo made a happy sound and wrapped his arms around Finn’s shoulders. “Party with you, I like the sound of that.” He pressed a firm kiss to Finn’s mouth and it felt like sparking wires. “I love you, I love you, you’re sweaty, ew, I love you.” He kissed Finn’s cheeks before whispering in his ear. “I know what you’re up to, you better change those sheets.”

“You got it, lover,” Finn whispered back.

“You guys are really bad at whispering,” Regulus said. He was standing by the door now. “Le, I want waffles.”

“I want that special quiche they had that one time, fingers crossed.” Leo grabbed his wallet and keys, then stumbled a bit when Finn reeled him back in, straight into one more kiss.

“I love you,” Finn said. “Have fun.”

“You taste like summer,” Leo smiled. “See you tonight. Let Lo know and we’ll text you the address.”

“Tell Logan congrats on making the finals,” Regulus called, then the apartment door swung shut.

Finn slipped through their open bedroom door, undoing his watch as he went. He smiled at the sight that waited for him. Logan was sprawled across the whole bed, like he was searching for them even as he was asleep. He was on his back, bare save for the tight gray briefs that he favored, and his chin was tilted up with his arms by his head. The sheets were low enough to show his tattoo. Finn’s heart picked up just looking at him. He could feel himself getting turned on. Logan and Leo both liked making love in the morning, and if Finn wasn’t careful, he’d see every sunrise and get endlessly hopeful each time.

Finn sat on the edge of the bed, pushing his sweaty hair off his forehead. Logan didn’t stir. He put a hand on Logan’s hip, thumbing over the dark ink. Nothing. He leaned over and pressed a kiss right to the center of Logan’s chest. That got a deeper breath, one of only just waking up.

Logan peeked an eye open and then, seeing Finn, closed them again and let a slow, sleepy smile spread over his face.

“Hi,” Finn whispered. “Good morning.”

“Mmm…Cœur.” Logan kicked back the covers. “Did you run?”

“Yeah, just got back.”

Logan stretched, his back arching. By the sly, tired look in his eye he knew exactly what he looked like. “Do you want to…”

Finn nodded, rubbing a palm high over Logan’s inner thigh. “I really fucking do.”

The sound Logan made next was low in his throat and pleased. “Come here.”

“Leo doesn’t like it when I bring outside sweat into the sheets,” Finn said—just to make him ask again.

“Good thing they’re my sheets,” Logan said.

Finn laughed and reached behind him to yank off his shirt. “That’s true.”

He shed his shorts and socks, too, and Logan tugged him down by the band of his underwear.

“If someone told you I was a morning hummer…” Finn mumbled into his kiss.

Logan threw a leg around Finn’s hip and pushed him onto his back. “Who’s someone?”

“Not Leo.”

Logan settled his weight down over Finn’s clothed cock and rocked slightly. He pressed one more kiss to Finn’s mouth before putting his hands against Finn’s chest and sitting himself upright. “Not sure I like that someone else knows that.”

Finn smoothed his hands over Logan’s strong thighs, so warm from being tucked under the covers. “That’s what I thought. Regulus just said—”

Logan froze. “Like, here?”

“Regulus was in our living room. Emphasis on was. Him and Le are at breakfast now, so…”

Logan sighed happily and rolled his hips again. “Oh.”

Finn hissed a breath through his teeth. “Yeah, baby, carry on. He says congrats on making the final round, by the way. I don’t know about you, but I’m ready for a few trips to Colorado. Not too many though.”

“Me too,” Logan said absently, more intent on palming Finn through the cotton material of his briefs, then himself. Finn could have lay there forever. He covered Logan’s hand with his and tucked a thumb into the front slip of his briefs to feel the silk of him.

Logan pushed into his touch, then bent to kiss him before reaching for the bedside table. Logan held the jar they kept there out to Finn and bit his lip around a smile.

“Oh, now he’s bashful,” Finn said, taking it.

Logan let loose his full grin and fell forward, tucking his face into Finn’s neck to bite at the sweat-damp skin. It was a bit of a tangle, ridding themselves of the rest of their clothes, and Finn laughed softly at the way Logan splayed his thighs wide over his lap, grinding their half-hard cocks together.

“You smell,” Logan whispered.

“Well, if I recall what I’ve learned about you over these many years—”

But then Logan was kissing him, licking into his mouth until Finn bit down on his lower lip just to hear his low groan. Logan moved down to kiss the salt from his jaw and neck, firm lips and quick dashes of his tongue and sharp, just on the side of not-too-hard nips from his teeth. Finn wondered what Logan would say if he asked him to just cover him in those biting kisses entirely and take his time about it.

“Did you have sweet dreams?” Finn asked, unscrewing the jar’s top.

“I’m in one,” Logan said, pulling back to watch Finn slick his fingers. “Did you have a good run?”

“Yeah,” Finn said, watching the way Logan’s eyes trained on his hand. “Got a chocolate croissant from that coffee shop by the river.”

Logan’s eyes darted to his, affronted.

Finn reached down and smoothed his hand over Logan’s ass. “Don’t give me that look.” He enjoyed the way Logan’s breathing hitched when he dug his palm into his muscles. “I don’t go near a bakery without leaving with something for my Lo.”

“Finn,” Logan whispered shakily.

“My sweet tooth creature of chocolate and sour candy.”

Logan pressed back against Finn’s slick touch.

“Of course it’s chocolate that turns you on.”

“You turn me on—” Logan cut off as Finn’s fingers found home, brows drawing together. His knees tightened around Finn’s hips. “Ah…”

Finn pressed his smile into Logan’s temple, then turned it into a kiss. They had time, so Finn kept his touches slow. The sun was coming through the window, lighting up dust in the air and throwing a warm slant across Logan’s lower back. Logan lay down against his chest and Finn could feel each one of his steady breaths. He kissed Finn’s skin every once in a while. Finn stroked his free fingers through Logan’s hair. It was almost like he was going to be put back to sleep, save for the needy thrum of his heart Finn could feel if he pressed a palm to his back. His skin still held that solid sort of heat he always had when he was sleeping, the warmth Leo and him always pressed their freezing fingers against in the middle of the night. Most people, Finn guessed as he felt Logan’s cock began to get wet between their stomachs, would shy away from any cold touch in their sleep. A slumbering Logan, however, always seemed to give them more room to warm up.

“Feels good?” Finn murmured. He scratched gentle fingers down the back of Logan’s neck and used the leverage of his other, slightly tweaking wrist to press deeper inside Logan’s body. More oil, a third finger that made Logan press his forehead into Finn’s chest and push back against his hand.

“Yeah,” Logan said. “Mhm, fuck.”

Finn rolled his head against the pillow to catch a good look at Logan’s parted mouth and shut, blissful eyes. His lashes cast those gorgeous shadows.

“You’re so fucking strong right now,” Finn said. “Fucking big, it’s…” Logan’s shoulders, the powerful muscles of his back, made Finn’s cock ache. He pressed hard into Logan, gentle with the pads of his fingers, until the corded muscles in Logan’s back shifted like rippling light and Logan gasped out a sound. “God, Lo, I love it.”

Logan’s laugh was a huffy, embarrassed sound, but his cheeks were pink and proud as he pushed himself to sit up, palms on Finn’s chest. Finn’s hand slipped out of him, but Logan was already reaching for the jar, then taking Finn in his hand, in both hands, to give him slow, smooth strokes.

Finn’s hips were pinned by Logan’s weight and he dug his nails into Logan’s thighs, trapped there with nothing to do but try to breathe through the sight of Logan’s scarred-knuckled hands around his cock. Logan watched, too, then darted his eyes to Finn’s face.

“I love your voice,” Logan said softly. His accent, sated already, dragged his words like a hand through clear water. He pushed himself onto his knees and positioned Finn’s cock, pausing to rub it against himself for a moment. “I love when it sounds like I’ve had you already and we haven’t even started.”

Finn just smiled and ran a hand through the mess Logan had left on his stomach. Then he felt the heat. Logan’s heat. It locked around him and Logan’s head dropped back in one, satisfied motion as he worked himself slowly down.

Finn’s toes curled and he dug his heels into the mattress. “Lo.”

“Mm,” Logan smiled up at the ceiling, eyes closed. He didn’t move. He stayed still, adjusting, before lifting himself so Finn could watch his cock slip nearly all the way out of him. Logan’s mouth fell open slightly, lost in the feeling if sinking down again. Finn, looking up from the mesmerizing sight of where they fit together, had expected his eyes to still be closed. But Logan was watching him.

“Sometimes, I can’t believe it’s you,” Logan whispered. He smoothed his palms up Finn’s chest over his heart. “I’m so—” He cut off as Finn accidentally slipped out of him. The sudden lack of contact ached and Finn hissed as his shaft jolted, seeking Logan and dripping beads of want from its tip.

“Non…” Logan began to say.

“Here, baby,” Finn was there, holding his hips and guiding them together again. “God.”

Finn felt his cock pulse, watched Logan feel it inside by the look on his face, saw the gleaming evidence of being as close to the edge as he was when Logan pushed himself up again. Finn splayed his hands over Logan’s ribs.

“So good,” Logan whispered. “You feel so good…”

Finn bent his knees, planting his feet on the bed to lift up into Logan’s body. It was the moments before the fall when he never felt deep enough, when ever part of him wanted to hear the sound of his skin moving against Logan’s more than anything.

He gripped Logan’s thighs, his fingers pressing indents into the strong muscle, and relished in the weight of Logan’s hands on his chest as he tried to keep his balance even as his breathing uneven. Logan reached behind him, hooking an elbow around Finn’s knee and found his rhythm again, letting himself fall down as Finn pushed up.

“Lo,” Finn grit out. It half-occurred to Finn that he should be doing most of the work, that Logan had other performances to pay attention to, but the blinding heat around him banished those thoughts quickly enough.

When Logan began to come, Finn knew he was only halfway there. He didn’t touch himself. Didn’t move to have Finn touch him.

“Ah—Ah—” Logan was loud. Hoarse, panting sounds fell from him that Finn swore were going to make him come. He reached down and pushed on the root of himself, trying to starve it off. Logan wasn’t done.

Logan leaned forward and fucked himself back on Finn in quicker snaps now as he painted strips of white over Finn’s body. Finn tilted his head back into the pillows, relishing the silky splash that reached up his chest, and the rhythmic squeezing of Logan’s orgasm around his cock.

“Fuck,” Finn said, hand circling Logan’s cock in a tight grip. “Oh, fuck, Lo, keep doing that, keep…”

Logan braced his hands on Finn’s ribs and began to push himself harder, hardly lifting off at all.

“Come here,” Logan whispered. He tangled his hands in Finn’s hair, gripping tightly, and kissed him.

Finn didn’t break the kiss as he went, just let Logan lick up his gasps. He pushed Logan onto his back in the rough, tumbling way he liked and hardly gave him any time for a please little laugh before he was grinding his cock into him, aiming straight for what would get Logan close to the edge of another one.

“Uh—” Logan pressed his teeth around Finn’s jaw, then dragged a half-kiss across his cheek until they were kissing as Finn rocked into him. “Yes, yes, Finn, yes…”

“I know.” Finn’s words sounded shaky to himself as he spread his palms down Logan’s back. He kissed the corner of Logan’s parted lips, the side of his nose, the high of his cheek. He caught a flash of green and Logan was suddenly looking at him again. It was written all over his face, how good he thought Finn felt inside. Finn could feel it in the half-smile they gave each other just before it was too much again and Logan dipped his fingers into Finn’s hair and brought their foreheads together. He felt it in the span of Logan’s hand down his back, then the way he cupped Finn’s jaw just to kiss him again through their mixed, heavy breaths.

Finn pressed his cock deep into him, almost straining for more, and stayed, and stayed, sucking a bruise into Logan’s neck until he felt him seize up around him and come between them again with a gasp. Finn smiled to himself.

“Good,” Finn whispered as he began to move again, chasing after his own now. “I’m gonna…”

“Yes.” Logan’s voice stuttered, pleasure that sounded like tears. He was trying to bring Finn closer with every part of him, drawing him in with his heels and the clutching of his hands and his core. He pushed his head back into the pillows and Finn kissed over the curve of his throat. He got a hand around the side of it, thumb just under his chin, so he could keep him like that while he added another bruise.

He thought of the party tonight as he rocked into Logan harder and watched the mark form as he worked Logan’s skin. Logan looked beautiful at parties. Low lights made his green eyes go dark. Anyone could see he was taken now. He’d need to pull Leo aside at some point, kiss him until he got that beautiful, open smile on his face like at the museum.

“Rouge,” Logan’s voice whispered. Two hands on the sides of his face. Logan had sweat beaded on his upper lip. Finn kissed him and slowed his hips. Logan reached down for his waist, coaxing him on. His thumbs were two lovely pressure points against each hip bone.

“Beautiful at parties,” Finn said softly.

Logan’s eyes edged on bewildered at that, but they were happy. They told Finn that Logan knew he’d been thinking about something, could even picture what he’d been thinking, at least a little. They’d always been that way. Logan nodded quickly, bottom lip between his teeth.

He began to fall over the edge at that look on Logan’s face. How had Finn ever convinced himself that Logan didn’t love him?

Logan opened up again at the feeling of Finn emptying inside him. Finn held his breath and closed a tight fist around the pillow beside Logan’s head. For a minute, they were just two heartbeats.

When he could breathe again, Finn peeked out from the warm crook of Logan’s neck. There was that small smile on his face, his eyes closed. He was making figure-eights around the notches of Finn’s spine. Finn shivered, sensitive now, and he eased himself from Logan’s body and tucked Logan into his side.

As he watched, Logan’s throat moved as he swallowed. Finn touched one of the love bites he’d left behind. Logan curled a gentle grip around his fingers, his palm against the back of Finn’s. He kissed the pads of his fingers and opened his eyes to look down at him.

“And what do I sound like now that you have actually had me?” Finn whispered, then winced one eye closed when his voice cracked.

“Sorry, what was that?” Logan laughed through the words.

“Shut up.” Finn ran a hand from Logan’s chest all the way down to the soft bend of his knee. “Oo-Ways.” Finn kissed his shoulder. “Want me to clean up?”

Logan thought for a moment, stretching beneath Finn’s hands. “Non. Shower soon.”

“Want me to bring you a chocolate croissant?”

Logan smiled. “Hm. Chocolate. What a turn on.”

~

Remus rolled the car windows down to let the smell of the lake and trees in, and smiled when he felt Sirius’ hand settle on his thigh as he drove them up towards the mountain trails.

“I still feel bad,” Sirius sighed. “Fuck.”

“Julian is not mad at you.” Remus said. “All we said was that we were going on a date—he can’t be mad that he couldn’t come.”

“But he was,” Sirius groaned.

“Disappointed maybe. He’ll live.”

“He’s going to hate me.”

“He literally could never hate you.”

“He’s going to start liking James more.”

Remus laughed. “Oh. So, that’s what you’re really worried about.”

Sirius just frowned at the sun-streaked road. Remus reached up to ruffle his hair. “Turn left here.”

He’d packed a simple picnic lunch and picked a straight-forward trail to a lookout that he’d hiked to a million times. The earth was spongy and soft beneath his feet as he settled the small lunch box, packed with icepacks, at the bottom of his bag. Making sure Sirius wasn’t looking, he opened it briefly to check all was right, then zipped up his pack.

Sirius started a few paces ahead of him, head forward as he climbed over roots and rocks like they were racing and he was determined to come in first place.

“Hi, I’ll just be back here,” Remus called out. “Your fiancé, trying to take you on a romantic hike.”

Sirius didn’t turn right away, so focused that it took him a moment to register that Remus had spoken. He stopped on top of a flat rock and looked back.

“Quoi? Did you say something?”

“I said I’m just your fiancé, back here, trying to take you on a romantic hike.”

“What?” Sirius laughed and stepped down. He retraced his steps back to Remus’ side. Even in the more mild mid-mornings, sweat already shone on his cheeks.

“Aren’t we trying to get to the top?”

Remus laughed. “Um. We’re going to get to the top.” He tugged at Sirius’ backpack strap. “Doesn’t mean we have to do it in under an hour.”

“Oh.” Sirius’ smile, aimed at the trees, was sheepish. “Right.”

Sirius stuck close to him after that, bending to feel a small stream running past them, or pausing to take Remus’ picture. Remus laughed himself hoarse when the rustle of a rabbit, darting between bushes, caused Sirius to jump half out of his skin. Sirius laughed himself when Remus stepped right into another small stream and walked the rest of the way disgruntled by a soaked sock.

They came to the summit sweating and out of breath, but as the trees opened up to reveal only sky and blue-purple mountains, they both stood quietly.

“Wow,” Sirius said. He turned in a slow circle, pushing his hair out of his eyes. “It’s like we’re the only two left.”

“If there’s anyone I would choose…” Remus began, and Sirius started to smile. “It would be Thomas.”

Sirius rolled his eyes. “Ouais, sure. Thomas.”

They found a shade-spotted place beneath a tree and Sirius rolled out the blanket from his pack while Remus set out their lunch of turkey sandwiches with cranberry sauce—Sirius’ smile was worth the slightly soggy bread.

“Hey,” Sirius said softly. He turned Remus’ gaze away from his bag with a hand on his chin, and kissed him. Remus had expected it to be quick, and the warm swipe of Sirius’ tongue, then the small scrape to his bottom lip, made him sway and catch himself with a hand on Sirius’ knee. Sirius smiled at him when he pulled back. “Feels like yesterday.”

Remus nodded. From the corner of his eye, he could see his ring. “Yeah, it really does.”

“This is perfect.”

“Wait,” Remus said, then produced from between cold-packs, a half-bottle of champagne.

“Loop,” Sirius laughed delightedly. “Really—C’est parfait.”

Remus began to untwine the wire. “I thought you’d like that.”

They let the sun creep towards their blanket. The champagne in the plastic cups caught the light, and Remus wiggled his nose at some bubbles as Sirius cut into a ripe pear and passed him slices as he went.

“So.” Sirius took a sip of champagne. “Do you think anyone would listen to me if I tried any pull that might get Tremz back?”

Remus leaned back on his elbows. “Hm. Well, it’s not like—I mean, you wouldn’t exactly have to convince anyone on our side. But the Rangers would have to be willing to deal. Money would be the problem.”

“I think about it when I’m trying to fall asleep sometimes. I’d take a pay cut,” Sirius said. “And I wouldn’t ask that of Leo so early in his career, but I bet Finn would, too.”

“And Kasey’s retiring,” Remus added. “That frees up quite a bit.”

“Ouais, this is what I’m saying.”

“But if the Rangers aren’t interested—”

Sirius sighed. “Yeah…Yeah.”

“Logan’s about to get them to a Cup, their first in a long time, if all goes to plan.”

Sirius didn’t say anything, just looked out towards the mountains. He set the core of the pear aside, wiping the leftover juices on a napkin.

Remus sat up again. He rested a hand on Sirius’ sun-warmed neck. “I’m sorry, baby. I know you miss him.”

Sirius nodded. “I do, but… More I just…If we ever got traded apart—”

“La la la.” Remus scrunched up his nose. “No, don’t. We’re drinking champagne, you can’t talk like that while we’re drinking champagne.”

It had been one thing this year, getting used to being on a team with all of his closest friends. It would be something entirely different to be in another locker room, filled with other players—some of which probably wouldn’t trust his experience.

“I was just going to say, if it were me, or you, I’d hope someone would help me. And it has happened. A player leaving and returning. It happens.” Sirius glanced at Remus, then down. “This is going to sound bad, but I am the face of the Lions. When I got here, we were in a horrible slump. I was part of pulling them out of that. Me, James, Dumo, Kasey… Then Finn. Then Logan.”

“That doesn’t sound bad,” Remus said. “That sounds true. That is true. I’d know, I watched it happen.”

Sirius nodded, then groaned and fell back against the blankets, his head pillowed on Remus’ pack. “I’ll try. I just won’t say anything to him in case nothing happens.”

Remus set his cup in the grass and rolled onto his side to be near him. He righted with the 1 and 2 pendants, which had switched to twenty-one.

“I love you,” Remus said. He leaned down to press his nose into Sirius’ cheek, enjoying the slight scratch of his stubble. “I don’t know how anyone calls those grey eyes of yours cold.”

Sirius just smiled, his eyes closing. Remus lowered his head to his chest and felt his arm wrap around his shoulders. The sun felt like it was soaking into his very bones. The champagne had made his head pleasantly buzzy, and Sirius’ heart beat slowly beneath his ear.

“I love you, too,” Sirius said.

He had hardly finished the words when Remus felt one rain drop, two, right on his cheek—and then downpour.

The sky was still blue, even as the sudden shower was came down with such force that for a moment they both merely lay there, staring at each other. Finally, Sirius cracked a smile, let out a surprised laugh, and began to sit up.

“Whoa. Oh my God, shit, the—the blankets.”

Remus’ laugh startled out of him. He shut his eyes and turned his head up to the sky. “Oh my God.”

Distantly, thunder rumbled beneath the rattle of the rain on the trees.

“Here, Re, go under that tree and I’ll—”

But Remus just pushed at Sirius’ chest, getting him to stay where he was. “No. I—no, wait.”

Sirius’ t-shirt was already thin and clinging at his shoulders, carving itself into his muscles. He blinked fast, laughing as the rain ran into his eyes. Up close, there was nothing steely about his expression. He was rainwater. Remus tucked two fingers around the chain of his necklace.

“It’s just rain,” Remus said.

Sirius spluttered a little. “This is—someone turned a tap on.”

But Remus just laughed harder and put his hands into Sirius’ soaked hair. It slipped, silky and dark, between his fingers.

“I want to kiss you,” Remus said. Raindrops ran into his mouth and matted his hair down against his forehead. “I want to kiss you when no one is about to come around the corner or knock on our door our shout up the stairs.”

At that, Sirius stopped trying to salvage their small camp. His hands found Remus’ waist and he lay back on the soaked ground at Remus’ slight pressure. Let their champagne mix with the rain in the plastic cups. Remus wanted to see if he could taste that combination, and he leaned forward and kissed Sirius for the summer storm that he was.

~

Luke liked Saint in his apartment. He liked the steam coming out of his bathroom and the sliver-glimpse he got of his lean body stepping out of the glass-encased shower. Luke looked back to his own reflection in the mirror. He’d ironed his shirt, the soft white linen mostly unwrinkled now. At least, he’d tried. He snapped a quick photo and sent it to Logan with two question marks.

The reply came after a few moments.

Nice!!

Finn was looking over my shoulder he’s better at this - brown belt instead?

On subway also - maybe slow reply

Where are you going?

Luke sent him the link to the restaurant.

But I’ve never been. Finn have favorites?

This reply did take longer. Maybe the subway, maybe Finn thinking. Then a link came through. He tapped on the address and it loaded in Maps, showing a small restaurant, not too far away. The tables were small. Candles. Romantic. A wave of nerves heated Luke’s neck and he glanced at himself in the mirror.

Thanks a lot

“You’re dressed.”

Luke looked up at Saint’s voice. His expression matched the faint hint of surprise it had held. He had a towel around his waist.

Luke set his phone down on the dresser. His heart really shouldn’t be pounding this hard. They’d done this before. These almost-dates. Quiet-never-quite-said-dates. Romantic, sort of, but could be mistaken for anything by the table beside them. Business. Friends catching up.

“Did you want me to lie around naked all evening?” Luke asked.

Saint arched a brow, but he didn’t reply and Luke smiled down at the brown belt he was weaving through his slacks.

“Why are you dressed like that?” Saint stepped in a slow arc around him, as if he needed every detail of Luke. Maybe there was something wrong with Luke’s heart. Maybe love didn’t make everyone feel this way. But it was nice. He wanted Saint to make him explode, actually, he really kind of did.

Logan was on the subway with Finn. They were probably standing or sitting pressed together. Maybe kissing once or twice. Luke had kissed Saint in an Uber, dark and out of view of the driver’s mirror.

“You’re going to be dressed like this, too, in a second,” Luke said.

“Why?”

Logan, talking about Leo coming back from his trip home. That night at that one bar, Logan had spent nearly the whole time pressed into Leo’s side just…content. Just at ease. So at ease.

Luke walked forward and took Saint’s face between his hands. Water dripped from Saint’s hair onto the cuffs of his shirt. Little dark droplets that would dry and fade. He kissed Saint once, then looked at his closed eyes and did it again.

“I’m taking you on a date,” Luke said.

Saint’s eyes opened. He had his mask up, the one he wore over his expressions on the ice. He looked Luke up and down, then moved out of his reach and went to the dresser. His eyes snagged on Luke’s phone, which he’d left open to Finn’s restaurant.

In the mirror, Luke caught a glimpse of a small, bitten back smile.

~

Finn steered them into a liquor store where they picked up small bottles of rum, gin, and tonic.

“I don’t know, it’s probably BYOB?” Finn said, though Logan hadn’t asked. He loved Finn and Leo in these stores, chatting up the sellers, asking advice. “The address is an apartment not a bar. We’ll stop at a corner shop and get you soda.”

Logan let Finn lead. He snapped a photo of Finn examining a wine label and Leo replied hot.

Finn made quick conversation with the man at the bodega, then found them a subway and grinned back at Logan as they walked down the stairs to the sound of a train rushing into the platform.

“You gonna hop it again if I dare you?” Finn asked as he took his phone out to pass them through to the platform.

“Shut up,” Logan replied without looking at him. Finn laughed at him but placed a kiss on the back of his neck.

The train to Brooklyn was crowded, but Finn spied one free seat and motioned Logan towards it.

“You sit,” Logan said. “You’re holding all the bags.”

Finn narrowed his eyes but complied. “I feel unchivalrous.”

“Un—what about a horse?”

“What?”

“Un cheval.”

“Ooh. Yeah, I have no idea.” Finn pulled Logan in until he was standing between his thighs. Logan held onto the rail above them and watched Finn’s eyes drop to the strip of skin it exposed as his shirt rode up. Finn steadied Logan with hands on the backs of his knees, the bottles clinking gently in the bag on his lap. He glanced at the two people beside them, eyeing the headphones over their ears and their noses in their phones, before playfully biting at the waistband of Logan’s shorts, laughing when Logan tangled his fingers in his hair and tugged his head back.

“Tu es un peu chahuteur.”

“Hm,” Finn said. “Eye level.”

Logan just shook his head. He was trying to decide if he was crazy for how Finn caused such a happy pressure in his chest, when he felt his phone buzz in his back pocket. When he checked it, Finn tilted Logan’s phone down to see, then leaned back in his seat.

Logan laughed. “You’re such a baby. Luke’s just asking me if he looks okay for a date.” He turned the phone around. “There, you can see. I think he does.”

Finn glanced at the picture, then turned away in a huffy sort of way.

“Rouge.”

Finn made a show of adjusting the bag of bottles in his lap. He didn’t look up when he said, “Tell him to put a brown belt on instead of black. It’s softer.”

Logan smiled, leaned down to kiss Finn’s head, and typed on his phone. He heard Finn mumble something that sounded a bit like yeah, whatever.

Another text appeared. “He wants to know your favorite restaurants. Little bit fancy.”

“My favorite?”

“You did grow up here, so.” Logan was having a little bit of fun with the pink heat spreading across Finn’s cheeks. His ears. He reached out and rubbed a thumb over the warm shell of his left one. “Where would you take Le and I? Little bit fancy. Summer night. Nothing too heavy, have to play tomorrow…”

Finn worried the inside of his cheek for a moment, eyes on one of the subway ads behind Logan’s head. Finally, he sighed and took Logan’s phone. He typed an address and restaurant name into the text and hit send.

“Merci,” Logan said. “He says thanks.”

Logan let go of the above-head railing completely as the train pulled into another stop, letting people off. The two beside them hardly looked up and didn’t budge. Logan leaned more heavily into the cradle of Finn’s thighs, stabilizing himself as the train jostled forward again. He cupped Finn’s chin gentle and made him look up.

“I love you,” Logan said.

“I’m not jealous of him. I love that you have him, I’d be a horrible person if I didn’t, not to mention a terrible boyfriend,” Finn said. “I’m just—I’m jealous that he gets to see you every day.”

Logan put his fingers back in Finn’s hair, gentler this time. Finn closed his eyes and leaned into his touch.

“I know, Rouge.”

A whole season, Logan thought, not for the first time. How am I supposed to go a whole season without this?

They stood at the address’s buzzer for a few unanswered moments before texting Leo who told them to go around the alley and enter a gateway through the back. It led them to a courtyard, lit up by warm, white lights strung overhead. It was a crowded space, loud with laughter and music. Logan moved around the sparse lawn furniture, which was set out in odd pairs like different pieces had been left behind by different people. Leo. He just needed to spot Leo. Finn was looking, too, eyes scanning the crowd.

Finally, Logan found him, hitting Finn to get him to look. Leo was standing with three people, all of whom were listening to him tell a story. He was wearing a shirt Logan didn’t recognize, a lovely light blue color, and it was unbuttoned enough for Logan to see the pendant of his fleur-de-lis necklace. His chest and collarbones looked warm in the lights strung above the courtyard.

“Jesus,” Finn said. “Look at him.”

Logan chose that moment to trip a little on a loose stone, and Finn caught him with a hand on his chest but laughed so loudly a few people looked at them. Logan bit back a smile and shoved Finn.

“Fuck off.”

Finn just slipped their hands together and began to pull him in Leo’s direction. Logan pulled back, though.

“Wait.”

Finn looked at him, then at Leo, then back. “What? Why?”

“I think we shouldn’t interrupt,” Logan said. “Let’s just…” Logan was enjoying how lit up Leo looked, how much he deserved to be the center of attention like that. “Get his attention, but give him a second.”

Finn wasn’t subtle about it. He waved his hand above his head until the motion caught Leo’s eye then made a heart with his hands and pointed to the table filled with drinks. Leo grinned and nodded. His circle looked, too, and Logan smiled and looked down with hot cheeks when he saw Leo’s mouth form the words, those are my boyfriends.

At the drinks table, Finn’s hands were already swiftly pouring what looked like a gin and tonics.

“Ew,” Logan said.

“They’re for Leo and I,” Finn laughed. “Don’t worry, I’ve got you. Or I would, if you gave me elbow room.”

Logan pushed closer to him. Finn didn’t complain, just settled a hand on the back of Logan’s neck and began pouring coke into a cup one-handed.

“Well, this is familiar. Drinks table, loud music. Mixing you a drink.” Finn reached for the rum. “You gonna watch me flirt with girls from across the room?”

“Ouais.”

Finn raised his eyebrows, looking up from where he was pouring. “Ways? What do you mean ways?”

“Then I’m going to come over and show them you are mine.” Logan took the cup Finn had now filled with ice. “I’d like to do it a few times, actually. Just because I can now. Go talk to someone and I’ll wait five minutes for them to fall in love with you, and then I’ll come over.”

Finn just picked up his and Leo’s drinks, shaking his head, but he was grinning hard. “You think it takes five minutes?”

“It took me two, I think.”

Finn clicked his tongue, but put a foot out to stop Logan from walking. “Come here, Ten, fuck.”

His kiss was soft, even quick, but Logan was surrounded by voices and lights, he could smell the rum in his drink, and it was almost as if he was eighteen and getting everything he’d ever wanted.

“It took me one,” Finn said, then laughed and walked away from Logan’s eye-roll.

When they turned, Leo was already watching them and grinning.

“You’re here.” Leo called when they weaved their way through the crowd. “I—oh, thank you, sweetheart.” He took the drink Finn held out and accepted a quick kiss. “Y’all, this is Finn and Logan. This is Amanda, Harper, and John—it’s Harper’s birthday, this is her place.”

Logan used the introduction time to move around to Leo’s other side. He was more interested in Leo’s lean back in that shirt than whose birthday it was.

“Happy birthday,” he said, offering a small smile to a girl with a pretty bob and brown eyes.

“Thank you,” Harper smiled. “Thanks for coming—wait, which one is which? Logan, Finn, Finn, Logan…”

Finn raised his hand. “Finn.” He pointed. “Logan.” Logan watched as Finn slipped right into his element. “Happy birthday. Wow, this is a great place—courtyard in the city is such a score.”

“Oh my god, right?” John said. Logan met his eyes and realized he had been watching Logan take in Leo. Logan smiled back, maybe a little awkwardly, then looked down at his drink.

“Seriously,” Harper said. “I’m not even sure how I got so lucky.”

“How’d you find it?” Finn asked.

Logan let every part of himself relax. This was a rhythm he loved. Finn, launching into a conversation so easily that he hardly had to say anything, hardly had to do anything except feel it when Leo put an arm around his shoulders and turned his head down for a kiss.

“Hi, Lo,” Leo said in his ear. He carded a quick hand through Logan’s hair. “Oh my God, I didn’t realize it was getting kind of long. I love it. How are you?”

“Good,” Logan said. “You look really good.”

That brought Leo’s smile to a new light. “Thanks, I bought this today. You like it?”

Logan nodded, reaching forward to touch one of the small, white buttons. They had a slight sheen to them.

“Thanks for coming,” Leo said. “I know you’ve got training tomorrow.”

“I missed you this morning, I wanted to be with you.”

Logan knew he should let Leo keep up with the conversation around them, even if he just wanted to ask how his day was, and what he did, and where he got the shirt so Logan could get him more of that blue color.

Leo squeezed his shoulder. “I’ll come to the gym with you tomorrow, I think.”

Logan smiled. “That’ll definitely make it go faster.”

“Wait,” said Harper suddenly, drawing their attention. “So, you’re like—actually…I don’t even know what to call it—like you’re in a playoffs right now.”

Logan blinked, but figured Finn must have said something.

“I was explaining we met through hockey,” Finn said. “And John said I looked familiar, so I was saying about Alex and such, maybe he’s seen his face around.”

“Oh.” Logan took a quick sip of his drink. “Ouai—Yeah. So, we’re about to start the final round. I fly to Colorado the day after tomorrow for the first game.”

“How many games are there?” the other girl—Amanda?—asked.

Logan felt himself smile a little, and noticed Leo and Finn doing the same.

Amanda flushed a bit. “Sorry, that’s probably a stupid question.”

“Non, non,” Logan said quickly, mixing with Leo and Finn’s protests. “Non, it’s—Really, it’s nice to talk to someone who isn’t as, ah…” He looked at Finn, trying to find what he would have said in this situation. What was the thing he said? “Ah, wrapped up as we are in all of it.”

He paused, but Finn stayed quiet and the others were looking at him. “Um. Well, there could be four games, if one of us wins straight in a row.”

“A sweep,” Leo chimed in.

“Or there could be seven, if we really go back and forth.”

“And they’re all in Colorado?”

“Non, we trade off. Colorado, New York.”

“Damn,” John said. “That’s a lot of travel.”

“Tell me about it,” Leo said.

“So…” Harper gestured her drink between the three of them. “You’re all on different teams? That must be hard.”

Leo’s hand tightened around Logan’s waist. He saw Finn glance away.

“Ah, non. We were all on the Lions—Gryffindor’s team?”

“Oh, I love Gryffindor,” Amanda said. “My best friend moved there this past summer.”

Logan flashed a brief smile. “Ouais.” He nodded to Leo and Finn. “They’re still there. I got traded to New York a little while ago.”

“Oh.” John frowned. “Wow. I’m—is it weird to say I’m sorry? That feels weird.”

“Oh, no,” Finn assured him. “Believe me, we’re all sorry.”

“Hey, there are fights in hockey, right?” Amanda asked more brightly. “Do any of you do that?”

Regulus’ laugh reached them before he stepped up on Logan’s other side. “Wow. You two have been here for four minutes and we’ve already got the place flooded with hockey talk.”

“Guilty,” Finn said.

“Wait, so are you, like, famous to some people? To fans? Like would people stop you in the street?”

Logan just raised his eyes at Regulus. They obviously didn’t know who his brother was.

“Yep, got a couple of celebrities in our presence.” Regulus raised his eyebrows right back. “Bow down, I guess.”

“Oh, stop,” Leo laughed. “Finn, honey, come here, I want you to meet someone you’ll like. Lo?”

“Ouais, just going to get some more ice.” It was so hot, even with the sun lowering in the sky, that his drink was little more than watery soda.

When he found the ice again, it was also watery mush. Logan pushed a hand through his hair, cursing softly when it got caught on a knot. Leo was right, it was getting a little long, curling just at the back of his neck.

“Salut.”

Regulus had followed him apparently. He stood on the other side of the table a bit awkwardly, hands in the pockets of his shorts. His t-shirt said I can’t, the Rangers are playing.

Logan laughed, pointing. “I didn’t notice that.”

Regulus smiled and replied in French. Thank God, Logan thought. He was already tired. “A little inside joke. Sirius was livid.”

“Ha, I bet he was.”

“Here. Fresh ice,” He pushed a cooler Logan’s way.

“Ah, great. Hey, thanks for inviting us. I know you probably don’t want all the hockey stuff around but—”

“Non, non,” Regulus said quickly. “I mean, yes. But that’s not—I don’t mind so much anymore. Obviously.” He gestured to his shirt. “Just needed a break, you know? A clean slate for a while.”

Logan nodded. “I get it.”

“Thanks for coming. You’ve got a lot going on right now.”

“Non, it’s a great break. And I’m trying to soak up as much time with the boys as possible, so.”

“You do have a whole summer for that.”

Logan smiled. “But it’s a short summer.” He used a fresh cup to scoop some ice into his drink. “Oh, before I forget.” He checked behind him, but Leo and Finn were across the courtyard. “I got us a cottage for the wedding. When you’re not with Sirius, you should come over and hang out.”

“Oh. That’s cool.”

“The boys don’t know. It’s a surprise.”

“How long are you guys staying up there?”

“Just a week. But we’ll be leaving Loops and Cap—or.” Logan rolled his eyes at himself.

Regulus laughed. “Habit.”

“Yes. One that my new team is not a fan of. But anyway, we’ll all be leaving them alone so, if you want, you should come stay? I know Leo will like that. Finn and I, too. It’s got, like, six bedrooms, so. And a dock. The family I got it from said we can use their boat—motor and sail.”

Regulus took a sip of his drink—Logan couldn’t tell what it was with the opaque red cup. “I’d really like that. If it’s all right.”

“It’s more than all right. I might invite my friend Luke and—and Saint.”

“Deveaux and Montague?”

“Ouais. You can bring someone, if you want.”

“Oh.” Logan swore Regulus’ eyes found someone in the crowd. “Ha, maybe.”

Logan looked over again to see Finn and Leo talking to two girls. He recognized their shared glances and the way they leaned in to catch every word Finn said. His entire chest got warm when he saw Leo switch his drink from one hand to the other and put his hand low on Finn’s back.

“You and my brother are still close.” Regulus said it like a statement, drawing Logan’s attention back to him. Then he added, “Right?”

Logan took a drink, tilting ice into his mouth. “Always.”

Regulus nodded. “Right.”

Logan looked at him, waiting for more, but Regulus didn’t offer anything right away. There was a plastic box of cookies on the table and Logan pointed to them.

“Just cookies? Nothing that’s going to make morning skate rough?”

Regulus smiled. “Yeah, just cookies.”

He took one, too, as if to prove it. “Do you think of him as a brother? Sirius. I know he thinks of you that way.”

Logan paused with the cookie halfway up to his mouth. He wasn’t sure if he was overthinking that question—especially coming from Regulus.

“I mean, obviously not like you. But, yeah, I think of him like that.” Logan took another sip, the rum sweet on his tongue. “Just with—Pascal and everything. And I could speak French with him. And we were with each other when, you know. The pictures. My trade. He’s one of my closest friends.”

Regulus nodded. He stopped nodding, and then nodded again. He snapped the cookie in half and chewed slowly.

“I’m glad he had that,” Regulus said finally. “I was just… All this wedding stuff. He’s got so many people.”

Logan nodded. “Ouais. Yeah, he does.”

Out of the corner of his eye, Logan could see Finn and Leo extracting themselves from the girls.

“He’d give us all up for you, though,” Logan said.

Regulus blinked, eyebrows going up. “I wouldn’t want him to do that.”

“I know.” Logan felt Leo’s hands on his waist, laughing at something Finn had said. He had about two more seconds, holding Regulus’ eyes, to make sure he knew. “But he would.”

Even once Finn and Leo started talking at the same time, Regulus’ gaze stayed on Logan, and he gave a pleased, conceding nod.

[sunshineandspencer]

Baby's first Hallowe'en

A/N: Angst? In front of my salad???!!! As if, happy endings all the way!! Bc angst makes me nauseous 😎😎😎 I’m also horrifically in a Marauders/Harry Potter phase rn because I got a 3D Knight Bus puzzle and the serotonin from completing it was the most scrumptious meal.

Pairing: Remus Lupin x Fem!Wife!Reader.

Summary: It’s their daughter’s first Hallowe’en, and she’s determined to make it memorable for her and her husband - with the most perfect costume, of course.

Word Count: 1.3k

Warnings: fluff, established relationships, slightly suggestive talk of having another baby (nothing mental)

I have redone the form for the taglist now that I’m apparently expanding from Criminal Minds

“Are you going to look all pretty for daddy, baby?”

Celeste couldn’t do much more than gurgle and try to gum at the tail of her costume, something her mum let her do. 

Letting her baby find out that the tail was, in fact, furry, is easier than trying to stop her. 

A little older than one, and her sweet girl has unfortunately developed her father’s stubbornness. Paired with his looks, there’s no hope of ever saying no to her precious face. 

Her and Remus had been together since their fifth year, and married right out of Hogwarts. 

Although, their ceremony was a lot simpler than James and Lily’s wedding. The wedding night, however, is the whole reason she’s got their baby girl in her lap right now. 

Celeste, because Remus spent the entire pregnancy calling the bump starlight, and also because of his furry problem anything related to the stars and moon made them giggle. 

In their defence, they were only nineteen when Celeste was born, but it’s better than Harry. And they stand their ground on that - obviously playfully - on every play date.

With the war, they weren’t going to be doing trick or treating. Lily and Harry are still downstairs, having apparated to their little village last night. Enjoying the quiet of the countryside compared to Godric’s Hollow, which was quickly filling with new people. 

James and Remus had been called out, with Sirius, on a last minute mission the night before but swore to be back for Halloween. 

Even though they can’t celebrate properly yet, they’re still going to be having a small party between them. It had been hard, since Peter was outed as a spy, and they’d all become a bit more guarded. But they wanted to try to make their children’s first holiday memorable.

And introduce Harry and Celeste to some lemon drops. 

While Lily had managed to find a golden snitch costume for Harry, which she was sure James would love, Celeste’s outfit is perfect.

Well.. her father may not agree at first, but thanks to that sense of humour of his, he’ll get over it. 

They didn’t sell it at any wizarding costume stores, probably because it would be a little insensitive. Thankfully muggles still assume that the wizarding world is all just a big story, so they have all sorts of insulting costumes. 

And, having found the perfect outfit at whatever a Sainsbury’s is, with Lily’s help, honestly the whole outfit looked amazing. 

Celeste, her and Remus’ daughter and the pure light in their life, has been dressed up all pretty as a werewolf. Granted, her daughter has no idea why she keeps breaking out into fits of giggles. 

With a few easy charms, the ears on top of the hood and the tail were able to move with Celeste, and it’s so unbelievably cute. 

Again, might be a little on the nose considering her husband’s condition.. but also it’s just hilarious and she couldn’t pass up the opportunity for this. 

The familiar sound of apparition sounded downstairs, quickly followed by James’ laughter and muffled joy at seeing his son - probably golden and winged. She gives it three drinks before he charms the wings to fly. 

Sirius, similarly, cheers at the sight of Harry before the familiar clinking of bottles in the kitchen tells her they stopped to get drinks. 

But Remus? He gives Lily and Harry a brief wave before bounding up the stairs.

Pushing the bedroom door open with a sigh, happy to be around the comforting warmth of his family, already hearing his wife’s giggles. 

“Where are my girls?! There they—“

He stopped dead in the doorway, looking between his flushed, near-hysterical wife, and the little wolf sat on the bed gnawing at their tail. 

Taking a cursory glance out the window, he made sure it’s not actually the full moon and he just didn’t change - which is absurd. 

Finally allowing himself to laugh when the cub turned and dropped the tail. His daughter reaching and cooing something soft for his attention. Dressed as a werewolf.

Joining them on the bed, he scooped up his daughter, crushing her to his chest as his wife had to lie back against the headboard and shut her eyes to try and stop laughing. 

“Hello there starlight, what’s mummy done to you?”

Mummy, still giggling and tears in the corners of her eyes, sat up and shuffled nearer. Leaning her head on Remus’ shoulder. 

“Mummy had a brilliant idea and it worked out so well. Don’t you think she’s all cute and fluffy?”

“I do.” He pressed a kiss to his wife’s hair and then gave a soft hum, looking at their daughter as she tried to reach for the tail again. “But what’s with the purple tutu?”

“She screamed whenever I tried to take it off. Werewolves can do ballet, you know.”

Poking him in the side, she tilted her head back and pursed her lips, asking for a kiss.

How he’d only known and loved this woman from the age of fifteen he’ll never know. Sometimes he forgets that they haven’t just always been together. 

He can’t wait for the day to pass where he would’ve finally known her longer than he hasn’t. 

Pressing his love against her lips, still relishing that he loved her. And that, honestly, she loves him just as much. If the faux-silver wedding band on their hands were anything to go by. 

“I love you.”

“You’re so sappy Rem.” But the smile on her lips became so bright it became hard to kiss. So she just pecked his cheek instead. “I love you too, hairballs and all.”

Sirius, as always having the most horrific timing known to man, decided then was a good time to burst through the door. 

Holding up some firewhiskey and excitedly talking about a movie Lily wanted to show them. 

“Apparently it has a talking skeleton and it’s about Halloween and Christmas and—“

His excitability ran its course the minute he saw Celeste. Nearly doubling over and having to put the bottles down, ignoring the warning to be careful of the carpet. 

Sweeping up his Godchild and bounding down the stairs to show James and Lily, unable to stop laughing long enough to actually say anything. 

With that distraction, Remus flopped them down on the bed, pressing his face to her stomach and releasing a sigh. 

Digging his fingers into her hips as her hands slipped through his hair. 

“Can we just stay here?” His thumbs slipped her shirt up and he pressed a tired kiss to the soft of her stomach, the scar from her C-section. “Make another one?”

That caused her to laugh again, and although that kind of bounced his head about, he didn’t care. The sound of her laugh slid away the nightmares he’d been facing only hours before. 

And with a rueful hum, she pushed them upright again. Much to his immediate dislike, but he allowed himself to be moved. 

“Not tonight, I actually want to see what Lily was talking about.”

Getting up with a groan, she raised a hand for her husband to take. A soft twinkle in her eye that still set his blood racing after all this time. 

Merlin, but he loved this woman more than life itself.

“But Sirius is babysitting both Harry and Celeste on the weekend, and we’ll have the cottage all to ourselves.”

That, at least, got her husband up off the bed. Pressing a hard kiss to her lips and then dragging her downstairs. 

Jokingly whispering that he wanted tonight over with already, so he could have her all to himself. Still, though, he treasured their baby girl’s first Halloween and the first - of many - holidays that they all got to spend together as a family.

Want more?! Good!

[petitemistletoe]

Grudges

Pairing: Regulus Black x Reader, Potter!Reader

Warnings: angst!

Word Count: 6.2K+

A/N: Alright listen I am a Lily Evans stan through and through but she does not come across the greatest in this fic

“Stop biting your nails,” Regulus nudged you lightly. 

“Sorry,” you said sheepishly, “I just hope the first term went well for Celeste. I’ve missed her so much.” You rested your head on Regulus’s shoulder. 

“Celeste sent us about a thousand owls with updates. She’s fine! Plus she’s had Milo with her.” Regulus made a good point. Your daughter, Celeste, had started her first year at Hogwarts at the same time as her cousin Milo.

“Where are Sirius and Remus anyway?” You asked, glancing at your watch, “The train is going to be in any minute now.”

As if on cue, you saw Sirius and Remus running through King’s Cross. Remus was carrying an empty carseat and Sirius was balancing a baby in his arms. They made their way over to your spot on the platform and were breathing heavily. 

“Someone,” Sirius panted, “take the baby so I can have a moment to collapse.”

“Give me my delicious little nephew,” you grinned, taking the baby from Sirius and giving his chubby cheek a little kiss, “how are you Teddy?”

Teddy gurgled in response and wrapped a chubby hand around a strand of your hair. 

“Why exactly are you two so late?” Regulus quirked an eyebrow at his brother. 

“You know how it is, baby stuff.” Remus explained, setting the carseat on the ground and taking Teddy back from you.

“Sirius take too long looking at himself in the mirror?” Regulus chuckled. 

“You laugh but it’s under the shroud of wicked jealousy,” Sirius deadpanned. 

“Can you believe that our kids are first years! It feels like we graduated just yesterday,” you reminisced, threading your arm through Sirius’ and resting your head on his shoulder. 

“They’ll be here any minute now!” Sirius grinned, looking at the wave of students getting off the train. 

“Sirius! It’s your turn, Teddy needs to be changed.” Remus was now holding Teddy at arms length, his nose wrinkled. 

“Oh no,” Sirius peaked at Teddy’s diaper, “Moony this is a two man job. You guys mind waiting for Milo while we fix this?”

“Go for it,” you waved the boys off. You and Regulus were making idle chit chat until a body slammed into you. You looked down and saw the nicely styled brown and black curls and knew it could only have been your nephew.

“Hi Milo,” you said, pressing a kiss to his head. 

“Hey Auntie! Have you seen my dads?” He asked, pulling away and hugging Regulus. 

“They’re in the bathroom changing Teddy. Have you seen my daughter?” You responded. 

“She’s coming. Her and Harry were saying goodbye to Ron and Hermione at the front of the platform.” Milo shrugged. Your blood ran cold. 

“Harry?” You asked. Before Milo could respond you saw Celeste skipping towards you.

“Mum! Dad!” Celeste gave you and Regulus a giant hug. 

“Celeste! I want to hear all about your term,” you said with a giant grin. 

“Sure Mum! I want you to meet one of the greatest friends I made. He’s actually one of Milo’s childhood friends.” Celeste stepped back and revealed Harry standing behind her. Even if you hadn’t recognized the name you would’ve know that Harry was James’s son. Harry was the spitting image of James, save for his eyes. His eyes were the same color as Lily’s. 

“Hi! I’m Harry Potter, it’s nice to meet you Mrs. Black, Mr. Black.” Harry extended his hand to you and Regulus. Regulus had the same gobsmacked expression that you did and he swallowed harshly before saying, 

“It’s a pleasure to meet you, Harry. I understand that you and Celeste have become fast friends.” 

“Yes! I’ve known Milo my entire life so he introduced Celeste and I. Milo’s fathers are actually my father’s two closest friends. You might know him, James Potter?” Harry asked. 

“Uh, yes. We were in school at the same time as your father.” Regulus said, diplomatically. 

“Really?” Harry asked. Before you could continue any further Sirius and Remus returned. 

“There’s my godson!” Sirius laughed, wrapping Harry in a tight hug. 

“He hugs Harry before he hugs his own son.” Milo rolled his eyes as he hugged Remus and gave his baby brother a kiss on the forehead. 

“There’s my boy.” Sirius lifted Milo of the ground in a grandiose show of affection. 

“Where are your parents, Harry?” Remus asked. 

“Around here somewhere I’m sure.” Harry scanned through the throng of people. He disappeared off and you felt like you could breathe again. 

“Alright, love, do you have all your things?” You asked Celeste, running a hand over your daughter’s head, “Regulus grab her trunk.”

“Did you make the Christmas fudge mum?” Celeste asked. 

“Three trays of it.” You grinned, pinching Celeste’s cheek. 

“Oh Auntie your fudge is the greatest! Dad can we go over to Celeste’s and have some?” Milo asked Remus. 

“Why not? You know I have a soft spot for chocolate.” Remus laughed as he tried to juggle both the car seat and Milo’s trunk. 

“Give me the baby and give the car seat to Sirius.” You said. Remus went to hand you Teddy but tutted, “Other side, Remus. My shoulder.” You swapped sides and then took Teddy from Remus’ arms and balanced him on your hip. 

You were making your way out of the train station when Harry was running back towards you all, a giant smile on his face.

“Alright Harry?” Celeste asked.

“Yeah, yeah. I wanted to introduce our parents. Mr. And Mrs. Black these are my parents James and Lily Potter.” Harry stepped back to reveal his parents. You felt like the wind had been knocked out of you. 

“James.” You said, cooly. 

“It’s been a while.” James’s tone was as icy as yours. 

“Well we should get going,” Lily said diplomatically. 

“Yes! Yes. Good to see you. Have a happy Christmas!” Regulus pushed Celeste away before the conversation could progress any further. 

Luckily for you all, Celeste forgot all about encounter by the time she got home, had a tin of fudge, and played with her little brother Atlas who had been in private lessons when you all were at the train station. Atlas and Celeste were sleeping peacefully, now, and you were thinking about James as you got in bed next to Regulus. 

“Love?” Regulus shook you from your thoughts. 

“Yes darling?” 

“I was saying that Narcissa called and wants to have tea tomorrow and get all the children together.” Regulus said. 

“Oh, sure Reg.” You nodded.

“Thinking about James?” 

“You know me so well,” you laughed softly, “it just caught me off-guard…seeing him again.” 

“I know. Are you alright?”

“It’s weird, right? Harry and Celeste being friends.” You asked, rubbing your shoulder. 

“Yeah, a good weird though. I think we should consider the possibility of telling them that they are related. They deserve to know and it’ll only be worse if they find it out on their own.” Regulus ran his thumb over your knuckles. 

“I know you’re right.” You went to bed that night with your thoughts spinning impossibly fast in your brain. 

✰

“Oh my God! How can a child so small poop so much?” Remus said in disgust. His entire chest was coated in what had previously been Teddy’s breakfast. Sirius had been walking over to check on Remus, but immediately turned and crept back down the hallway as quietly as he could. “Nice try, Pads! Get back here right now.” 

“How did you know I was in the hall?” Sirius asked with a groan, taking over the diaper change while Remus removed his shirt and scourgified it. 

“Werewolf hearing, obviously.” Remus rolled his eyes. 

“Dads! When are we going to Celeste’s?” Milo asked, peeking his head into the room. 

“We’re going to meet Celeste and Atlas at Aunt Narcissa’s house.” Remus responded. 

“Oh fuck do we have to go to Narcissa’s? It’s so creepy there.” Sirius complained. 

“Really? You aren’t even going to pretend to act like a parent in front of our kid?” Remus rolled his eyes. 

“Aunt Narcissa isn’t so bad,” Milo shrugged, “Draco’s kind of annoying though.”

“Of course he is. He’s the spawn of a Black and a Malfoy.” Sirius rolled his eyes at the thought. 

“Sirius!” Remus was unfortunately not surprised at his husband’s antics. 

“I have a different question.” Milo shook his head, “so you know how Celeste and Atlas are mine and Teddy’s cousins because Dad and Uncle Regulus are brothers?”

“Yeah?” Sirius and Remus weren’t exactly sure where things were going.  

“And you know how you two were best friends with Uncle James and Aunt Lily in school?”

“Yeah…” Now Sirius and Remus had an idea where things were going and they didn’t exactly love it. 

“Why was I never allowed to have Harry and Celeste over at the same time? And why were things so awkward between everyone at the train station when Celeste’s and Harry’s parents met?”

“Don’t know what you’re talking about.” Remus said quickly. 

“Yep, Milo, you’re crazy.” Sirius nodded.

“Wait a minute,” Milo’s brain was moving quickly now, “isn’t Auntie’s maiden name Potter? But she doesn’t have a brother…is Uncle James her cousin? Are they fighting? Have they been fighting since before any of us were born? But Auntie always talks about how important family is…did Uncle James do something to break their bond? They must’ve been close since they would have been just a year apart at Hogwarts. And you two are still very close with her and Uncle Reg…in fact Dad I remember you said that Auntie was the person that reunited you with Uncle Reg. So it had to be something really specific between Auntie and Uncle James. Aunt Lily’s face was almost as red as her hair and Uncle Regulus was glaring at Uncle James when we were at the train station so I bet it was something about Auntie marrying Uncle Regulus and Uncle James marrying Aunt Lily. But Uncle James and Aunt Lily got married first so it was probably a fight between Auntie and Uncle James about Aunt Lily!” Milo looked very pleased with himself.

“You’re way off, Milo, it wasn’t like that at all.” Remus said weakly.

“How did you do that?” Sirius was looking at his son now like he was dripping in radioactive waste. 

“I knew it!” 

“Okay, Milo, listen you can’t tell Celeste or Harry. This is not our information to share.” Remus was very serious. 

“Of course, Dad. The secret is safe with me!” Milo beamed. 

✰

“Oh my God Ron! How has it taken you this long to cast a communication spell? Fred and George showed it to us like four times before we left for holiday!” Celeste whispered. She was underneath her covers as it was past one in the morning but Milo had sent everyone an owl saying he had an urgent message and needed to talk face to face. 

“It was hard, Cel!” Ron tried to defend himself but Harry was laughing too hard to be heard for anyone else on the call to hear him. 

“Okay, okay. Milo what’s your news?” Hermione asked, shaking her head.

“I just discovered something big! Something about Celeste and Harry.” Milo said excitedly.

“Does it have something to do with how weird our parents were at the train station?” Harry asked. 

“Yes, indeed. Celeste’s mum and Harry’s dad are cousins!” Milo paused to allow the revelation to skin in. 

“No way! Why wouldn’t they tell us?” Celeste gasped. 

“Apparently they had a really bad falling out and I think it’s because Celeste’s mum and Harry’s mum hate each other!”

“Why would they hate each other?” Hermione asked. 

“No idea. But you two are going to have to find out.” Milo grinned. 

✰

“So mum,” Celeste asked after you all returned from the Malfoys, “I have a question for you.”

“Sure, love. Did you want any more fudge?” You asked, taking out a tray and cutting off a few pieces. 

“Thanks mum!” Celeste took the plate from you.

“Hey Atlas! Do you want any fudge?”

“Yes yes yes!” Your eight year old came running into the kitchen. Atlas looked just like Regulus, dark curls and bright green eyes. Celeste looked more like a potter…more like James, in fact: tanned skin, warm brown eyes, easy smile. Celeste and Harry had looked like twins at the train station. It filled you with an uncomfortable heartache.

“Giving the kids more sugar?” Regulus quipped, helping push Atlas’s chair closer to the table. 

“It’s Christmas.” You smiled, “there’s a fresh batch of egg nog in the fridge from this morning if you’d like to join me in a glass.”

“Read my mind, Mrs. Black.” Regulus poured you and him two glasses and you sat at the able with your kids. 

“So Celeste, you said you had a question for me?” You asked, leaning back so you were resting against Regulus’s shoulder. 

“Are you and Harry’s dad cousins?” Celeste asked. Your back went rigid as Regulus sputtered and choked on his eggnog.

“Why…where did you hear that?” You asked. 

“Milo.”

“I’m going to kill Sirius.” Regulus shook his head.

“The truth is, yes, James and I are cousins.” 

“Did you have a falling out because you hate Harry’s mum?” 

“Oh my god,” Regulus rubbed his temples.

“Who’s Harry?” Atlas asked.

“I do not hate Harry’s mum.” You sighed, “James and I are just not as close as we used to be.”

“You know what,” Regulus stood, “we’re going to Sirius and Remus’s. We can let them explain everything since they felt so strongly about sharing it in the first place.”

“Good idea.” You hoisted Atlas onto your hip, even though he was far too big for it now and apparated as Regulus grabbed firmly onto Celeste’s wrist to apparate them both. You were standing in Sirius and Remus’s living room and you set Atlas down as Sirius entered the room with a blanket and a bowl of popcorn. 

“Oh fuck,” Sirius tried to turn on his heel but you grabbed him by the back of the shirt. 

“You’ve got a big mouth, Black.” You shoved Sirius down on the couch. 

“Moony! Milo! Can you come in here please?” Sirius called as Regulus and Celeste apparated into the room. 

“What’s up, Pads?” Remus entered the room, Milo right behind him.

“Hey Auntie,” Milo said shyly, sitting between his fathers on the couch. 

“Milo, when we speak to you do you hear words or is it just the Charlie Brown whomp sound?” Remus said with a sigh.

“Sorry,” Milo shrugged. 

“We’ll deal with you later. Take your cousins up to your room while your aunt tears me a new asshole.” Sirius sent Milo, Atlas, and Celeste out and then cast a silencing spell over the living room for good measure. 

“What the hell is wrong with you!” You said, slapping Sirius on the chest and arms after each word for emphasis. 

“Milo guessed it! It was really only a manner of time considering your behavior at Kings Cross.” Remus said with a sigh.

“You’re right.” You flopped on the couch next to Remus and put your head in your hands. Regulus sat down next to you and rubbed your back. 

“Do you think it might be time for you and James to reconcile? It’s been ten years since you two last spoke.” Remus asked.

“I don’t know. I’ve been carrying this resentment so long I might feel lonely without it.” You said with a weak chuckle. There was a loud crack in the air and James, Lily, and Harry were standing in the living room. 

“Sirius!” James roared, “I’m going to kill you!”

“Milo has another parent! Why do target me?” Sirius threw his hands in the air. 

“Kids are upstairs, Harry. Why don’t you join them while we talk?” Remus sent Harry upstairs. 

“I think we should have a conversation about how we’d like to proceed. Celeste and Harry are closer than ever and I don’t think any of us have been very fair.” Regulus said with a deep sigh. 

✰

“James!” You said in a sing-song voice as you set your book down and settled down on the blanket that James had spread in front of the lake. James, Sirius, and Remus had been taking advantage of the nice day and were studying outside by the Black Lake. 

“What is it?” James was pretending to be exasperated but he couldn’t hide his smile. He always had a soft spot for his baby cousin. 

“I need your potions notes. We’re brewing liquid luck and Slughorn assigned me a terrible partner.” You said with a sigh. 

“Who’d he assign you?” Sirius asked. 

“Your little brother,” you said with an eyeroll.

“Come on,” Remus exhaled lazily, handing you a joint that he’d lit a few moments before, “as far as Slytherins go, Regulus is pretty good at potions.”

“Yeah, yeah he’s a potions wiz. I don’t need him mansplaining potions to me so I need to read up on liquid luck and show his ass up.” You said before taking a long drag of the joint, “This is really good, Remus.”

“Thanks, I did get an O in herbology.” Remus laughed. 

“Here,” James was forever organized and was able to locate his notes from last year rather quickly, “use them wisely.” 

“Hey Prongs did you tell the young Miss Potter your news?” Sirius asked, taking the joint from you.

“No! What’s your news, Jamie?” You poked James in the ribs playfully. 

“Now that Lily and I have been dating for a few months now, I’d like for you two to officially meet.” James said with a grin. Your stomach turned unpleasantly. You had only ever seen Lily in passing, considering you were in Slytherin and a year younger than the Marauders. You hadn’t liked how James had pined after Lily considering she did not make it a secret how she despised him. Sure, James was a bit immature sometimes but he had the biggest heart of anyone you knew. You swallowed all that down and grinned, 

“Can’t wait. When are we going to meet?”

“Why don’t you come to the Gryffindor common room tomorrow night?”

“Sounds like a plan.” You grinned. You had to leave the warm sun and your friends an hour later to meet with Regulus to start the potions work. You didn’t care for Regulus. Being a close friend of Sirius meant that Regulus was naturally more haughty towards you and you thought he could be unnecessarily cruel whenever he was around Barty Crouch Jr. To you had been less than pleased when Slughorn had paired you together would be an understatement. 

You found him sitting at a table in the corner of the library, bent over a book. 

“Hello Regulus,” you said, sitting down next to him. 

“Hi. I thought we could start with raiding the greenhouses to find some horseradish. The first step of brewing Felix Felicis is to mix ashwinder eggs and horseradish.” Regulus said. 

“I think it’d be better actually to substitute wasabi for horseradish. Apparently it makes the potion more potent.” You said, setting James’ notes out in front of you.

“These notes are brilliant,” Regulus snatched up the page and studied it. 

“Thanks, they’re my cousin’s.” You shrugged. You worked for a while with Regulus before walking together back to the Slytherin dorms. 

“You know…it’s funny.” Regulus said with a small shake of his curls. 

“What is?”

“You and I both have close family in Gryffindor. The Gryffindor/Slytherin mix isn’t super common.” Regulus said. 

“Yeah I guess you’re right.”

“We’re not so different are we?” 

“I’m nothing like you, Regulus. I’m not cruel.” You crossed your arms. You were at your door now and weren’t entirely sure why Regulus had walked you all the way up to the girls dorms. 

“The Felix Felicis takes six months to brew. I bet you’ll be under me by then.” Regulus said with a confident laugh.

“In your dreams, Black.” You said with an eyeroll. You entered your room and huffed but had to admit it was a bit hard to hide your smile. 

✰

You were nervous as you ascended the steps up to the Gryffindor common room. You didn’t know what it was exactly but you weren’t looking forward to meeting Lily. You shook the thoughts from your brain as Sirius let you into the common room. 

“Remus!” You said with a grin, jumping into Remus’s lap and accepting the joint from him. Lily was perched on James’ lap and she was grinding down on him as they made out like their lives depended on it. 

“Break it up, love birds, you have company.” Sirius said, slapping James upside the head on his way back to the couches. 

“Sorry,” James said, sheepishly, setting Lily down next to him. James introduced you two. 

“Lily, it’s great to finally meet you. The guys talk about you all the time.” You said with a smile.

“Ditto! James always says you’re one of the most important people in his life.” Lily grinned. 

“Yeah. James and I are both only children so we really felt more like siblings than cousins.”

“Are you the first Potter in Slytherin?” Lily asked. It was an innocent enough question, Lily could not have known that it had been a sore subject in your family. You were the first Potter in Slytherin. No Potter had been in a house that was not in Gryffindor for over one thousand years. It had been a shock to your family. 

“Uh, yes I am.” You tried to hide your discomfort over the question. 

“Oh. Good for you.”

“And you’re a muggle born, right?”

“Yes.” Lily’s eyes flashed dangerously. 

“Good for you.” You responded. The rest of the night passed rather quickly and then James walked you back to the Slytherin dorms. 

“So?” He asked excitedly.

“So what?” 

“So what did you think of Lily? She’s great, isn’t she?” James was beaming.

“She’s something.” You pursed your lips. 

“What do you mean?”

“I hate her.” You said with a head shake. James was shocked. He tried to get more out of you, but you told him you were tired and went to bed. James felt like his brain was in shambles as he made his way back to the Gryffindor common room. Only Lily was left, reading a book by the fire. 

“Hey love,” James sat down next to her and pressed a kiss to her forehead. 

“Hi James. Have a good walk?” She asked. 

“Yeah, yeah. You liked my cousin, right?”

“Your cousin?” Lily said nervously, “Yeah! She’s quite spirited.” 

“Oh my god you hate her, don’t you?” James’s heart felt like it had dropped into his ass.

“I do!” Lily groaned, “But honestly I barely know her. We’ll get together more and more and hopefully we’ll become good friends. It’s clear to me that we both care about you a lot and want the best for you.” Lily said. James could only shrug. 

✰

As Lily and James became closer and closer, you started spending less and less time in the Gryffindor common room. You also became closer to Regulus as you continued working on your potions project together. You were finally able to meet Regulus for your final potion check before you submit it as a final to Slughorn. As you made your way down you ran into James. 

“Hey! I feel like I haven’t seen you in forever. I miss you.” James said, slinging an arm over your shoulders. 

“I know! It’s just been so busy with classes and finals but I’m about to submit my potions final so that’ll be a huge weight off my shoulders.” You said with a grin. 

“We’re going to the Three Broomsticks tonight, why don’t you meet us there? Celebrate the end of potions for the year” James said, “We’ll get properly pissed.”

“That sounds great. Who all is going?” You asked. 

“The whole gang! Remus, Sirius, Mary, Marlene, Lily.”

“Lily?” You faltered. 

“I know you aren’t her biggest fan but I promise it’ll be fun.” James begged.

“Alright! I’ll see you later then. Have a butterbeer waiting for me.” You called as James reascended the steps. He sent you thumbs up before disappearing around the corner. You walked into the potions classroom and saw Slughorn was peering over your cauldron as Regulus explained away. 

“Ah Ms. Potter, nice of you to join us. I was just about to review your potion. I believe you and Mr. Black were assigned Felix Felicis.”

“Yes sir, we were.” You nodded. 

“As I was saying,” Regulus said with a quick nod in your direction, “we decided to add wasabi instead of horseradish to the potion in order to increase its potency. 

“Very smart.” Slughorn nodded. He mulled over the potion for a full two minutes before nodding. “Outstanding work you two. I knew great things would come from the two of you. Your reward is that you are able to keep the potion. I’m sure you both understand, however, that use of the potion during a Quidditch match is strictly illegal.” 

“We understand, professor.” Regulus nodded. Professor Slughorn stalked out of the room. You and Regulus hugged tightly. 

“We did it! Do you want the potion? I don’t have any use for it.” You said with a shrug.

“Yeah.” Regulus nodded. He uncorked the vial and swallowed it down.

“What are you doing?” You raised your eyebrow and looked at him.

“I needed it for what I’m about to do.” Regulus said. Before you could ask him what he was talking about, Regulus grabbed you by the waist and kissed you hard. You were surprised at first but then you wrapped your arms around his neck and kissed him back.

“Oh wow.” You said when you broke apart. 

“Will you go out with me?” Regulus asked, brushing his curls out of his face. 

“Yeah. Do you want to go to the Three Broomsticks with me?” You asked. 

“Yeah I do.” Regulus grinned. 

The two of you walked hand in hand to Hogsmeade. It seemed that the Gryffindors had started without you and the group was very, very drunk. Lily was perched in James’s lap again and you tried not to roll your eyes.

“What are you two doing here?” Sirius asked, slurring his words a bit, “I mean…what are you two doing here together?”

“We’re friends, Sirius.” You rolled your eyes. You and Regulus were able to catch up to the rest of the crowd quickly. 

“More than that.” Regulus laughed and slung his arm over your shoulders. 

“Really?” James narrowed his eyes. 

“Why not?” You snuggled yourself deeper into Regulus’s arms. 

“He’s a Slytherin. He’s dangerous.” James snapped at you.

“I’m a Slytherin.” You bit the inside of your cheek harshly. 

“So you finally made your way over to dark wizards? Guess you really are a Slytherin.” Lily giggled. 

“And you’ve proven that you can live up to the stereotype of annoying muggleborns.” You shot back. 

“Stop it.” James frowned but it was too late. The storm between you and Lily had been brewing for six months and there was no stopping it now.

“You know what James, I can’t do this anymore. It’s her or me.” Lily crossed her arms over her chest. 

“Oh come on! Like James is going to pick some girl he’s been dating for less than a year over his cousin.” You rolled your eyes.

“Don’t do this. You both are being unfair.” James said. 

“James didn’t tell you? After we graduate, we’re moving in together.” Lily spat at you.

“Make your choice James.” You said coldly. 

“No.” James shook his head.

“Fine,” you said, standing and grabbing Regulus’s hand, “I’ll make it for you. Goodbye.” And you stormed off. 

✰

There was quite a bit of electricity in the air during the Quidditch final. It was already charged, being a competition between Gryffindor and Slytherin. You and Regulus were both playing as chaser and seeker respectively. This was an important match for you, you were being scouted by four different professional Quidditch teams and the representatives were all in the stands. You still had a year of Hogwarts left after this one but the teams were ready to make an offer that would work around your school schedule. 

You couldn’t think about that right now, though. You wanted to stomp Gryffindor into the dirt. Your blood was pulsating in your ears as Madame Hooch blew the whistle to signify the start of the match.

The match was vicious, with you and James diving at each other and playing dirtier than you ever had to before. You were flying next to James and you shoulder checked him rougher than you should’ve. James nearly fell off his broom but he was able to swing all the way around and restabilize. 

“That was a cheap shot!” James spat at you.

“Guess I’m just a lousy Slytherin.” You spat back. “At least I’m not wrapped around the finger of a witch with a stick up her ass.”

That was too far, you knew it, but you were too upset to care. James yanked at the back of your broom just as a bludger rammed itself into your chest. You fell hard and Madame Hooch had been too enraptured in a squabble between the Sirius and the Slytherin beaters to notice what was happening until it was too late. You hit the ground hard and heard a sickening crunch sound as your arm was wrenched awkwardly behind your back. You groaned as Madame Hooch started running towards you and blowing her whistle wildly. Before she reached you, though, your broom did and it embedded itself in your shoulder. You were screaming so loud your throat was raw. You tried to grab at your broom with your other hand but realized that the broom had impaled the fleshy part of your shoulder and was anchoring you to the ground. 

“Oh my God,” Madame Hooch gasped as she made her way towards you. Madame Pomfrey was hot on her heels and she knelt down next to you. Regulus made his way down to you next. He dropped to his knees next to you and grabbed at your hand, giving it a comforting squeeze. Then Sirius landed. He took one look at you and promptly vomited into the grass. James was there next, his face paler than it had ever been. 

“Alright love, I’m going to move you over to the hospital wing where I’ll give you a sedative and assess the damage.” Madame Pomfrey said. You wished that Madame Pomfrey had given you the sedative before she moved you. You had never and would never again experience such pain. Not when you gave birth, not when you had been a victim of cruciatus  curse, not ever. Madame Pomfrey had to move you again to St. Mungos and a team of healers were put together to remove your broom from your shoulder and patch you up. 

When you were finally stable again, the doctor who had been presiding over your case made his way to your bedside. Your parents and Regulus had been by your side for the entire four day period. 

“It will take time for your shoulder to heal. It faced an unbelievable trauma and even after much physical therapy, rigorous potion taking, and rehabilitation your shoulder will never reach its full, working capacity.” 

“So I’ll never play Quidditch again.” You said bitterly.

“Oh darling let’s just be happy that you’re okay.” Your mother tried but you shook your head. 

“I’m so sorry, Ms. Potter, but no. Playing professionally will not be possible.” The doctor bowed his head. 

You refused James’s visits for the next two weeks until you were able to be discharged from the hospital. You were home, laying on your bed and staring at the ceiling. You wanted to rip down your Quidditch posters but you couldn’t extend your arm that far up yet. You were forced to just glare up at them. 

“Hey, can I come in?” James asked, knocking on your open door. You looked at him and turned back to stare at the ceiling. “You have no idea how sorry I am. I have never felt more terrible in my entire life. I thought you were going to die,” James had tears in his eyes, “and it would have been all my fault. All over something so stupid. But I’m glad that you’re alive. But I am so so sorry that I cost you your career. If I could go back and erase it, I would.” 

“I don’t ever want to see you again.” You said softly and stared at the ceiling until James left the room. 

✰

You and James did not speak for four years. He got married and you got married and it was bizarre. All of a sudden you were no longer speaking to your best friend. Good things came out of the situation, though. You and Regulus got married and had a baby. Regulus and Sirius repaired their relationship and Sirius and Remus married and had a baby as well. You and Reg had Sirius and Remus over often, watching the newly one year olds play together. 

“I still can’t believe that you named her Celeste.” Sirius shook his head. 

“Why? You don’t like the name?” You asked with a soft laugh.

“I just can’t believe you stuck with the celestial theme.” Sirius rolled his eyes. Regulus laughed too.

“It wasn’t even my idea,” Regulus laughed, “my darling bride thought of it. She wanted Celeste for a girl and Atlas for a boy.”

“You really are a Slytherin.” Sirius laughed and gave you a kiss on the cheek before scooping Milo up.

“We should get home and give Milo a bath before bed. I don’t know why people think that having babies is hard. Milo’s a dream.” Sirius shrugged. He apparated out. Remus was about to follow when he turned to you.

“What is it Remus?” Regulus asked. 

“I know you don’t want to hear it, but James and Lily are in a rough place. James might try to reach back out to you.” Remus said. 

“I’m not interested in that.” You said, looking down at your lap. 

“I know. Just thought I would give you a heads up.” Remus said with a smile before apparating out.

“Celeste still has so much energy. Should we let her play for a little longer before bed?” Regulus asked, settling into the couch. 

“Yeah, why not.” You shrugged. You and Regulus chatted idly for a bit longer before you heard a knock at the door. 

“Think that’s Sirius forgetting something?” Regulus asked. You stood up and headed for the door, 

“Doubt it. When has Sirius ever knocked?” You laughed. You opened the door and your jaw dropped in shock when you saw James at your doorstep, Harry on his hip.

“Hey.” James said softly.

“James. What are you doing here?” You asked. 

“Who is it?” Regulus called from the couch. 

“Uh, it’s James.” You responded. 

“I’m sorry,” Regulus walked up over to where you were, “I thought you said James but I must have mis-” Regulus went silent. 

“What are you doing here?” You asked. 

“I, uh, I wanted to see you. I wanted to talk about things.” James said, bouncing Harry on his hip a few times. 

“Why don’t you come in,” Regulus stepped back to let James in. He lead James into the sitting room where Celeste was sitting on the ground and playing with her toys. 

“Thanks, Regulus.” James said as he entered. 

“Why don’t you let Harry play with Celeste?” Regulus offered. James set Harry down next to Celeste. “I’ll go make some tea.” Regulus left you and James sitting on the couch in awkward silence. 

“Harry looks like you.” You said softly.

“Yeah, yeah he does. Celeste looks like you.”

“Seems like they were fast friends.” You said. Harry and Celeste were curled up, yawning and grabbing at each other’s feet. 

“That’s good. It’s good for cousins to be close.” James said. 

“I heard things between you and Lily are rough right now.” 

“It’s just a rough patch. But I’m sorry about the way things happened. I want Harry to have his cousin in his life. I want my cousin in my life.” James was nervous, you could tell. 

“I don’t know if it’s fair to set up Celeste for that kind of heartbreak. Wouldn’t want the kids to get close only to have Harry abandon Celeste for some girl and then nearly kill her.”

“That’s not fair,” Regulus said, setting down the tray with the tea.

“I don’t have to be fair. James cost me everything.” You said, your jaw set. 

“I want to start over. Please. I love you, I miss you.” James begged. 

“Then why did you choose Lily?” Emotion was cracking through your cold exterior. 

“I didn’t!” “You did! I’m your family! You never should’ve chosen her over me.” You said, rising from your seat. 

“You never should’ve made me choose!” James screamed back. 

“Maybe we should revisit this later when everyone has had a chance to calm down.” Regulus stood between you and James now.

“No. I think you’ve made it very clear. Sorry I tried.” James scooped up Harry and left, slamming the door shut behind him. 

✰

“No, we haven’t been fair.” You said, “But I’d like an apology.”

“I’m sorry! I’m so so sorry for everything I did to you.” James gushed, grabbing your hand. 

“Not from you,” you shook your head, “from Lily.”

[lulublack90]

Prompt 14 - Secret Identity

@wolfstarmicrofic July 14, word count 948

Because of his family, Sirius often used another name when dealing with people he didn't know. Especially when dating. Once they heard Black, that was it, they were suddenly obsessed with being introduced to his parents. He’d grown his hair long, and he avoided suits like the plague. If you put him next to a picture of his younger self, it would be hard to guess they were the same person. 

He was being set up by a friend of a friend. He’d been adamant that his real name wasn’t mentioned. He had a rule that he only revealed his actual name if he thought it would go anywhere and, so far, that hadn’t happened. 

He was nervous. Something about this date was making him jumpy. He tried to shake it off and think about the nice meal he was going to have tonight. He’d chosen his favourite restaurant, all the staff knew him and knew not to call him Sirius or Mr Black. 

A tall, thin man in faded blue jeans, a slightly rumpled white shirt and an honest-to-god brown cardigan. Sirius looked around the restaurant to see who he was meeting. The man leaned in to ask the host something and, to Sirius’s astonishment, Celeste led the man over to his table. He jumped out of his seat when they stopped beside him and the man looked at him expectantly. 

“Thank you, Celeste,” He held out his hand to his date. “Simon White,” He introduced himself. 

“Remus Lupin,” Remus replied politely. They sat down and opened their menus. 

Sirius already knew what he was ordering, so he observed Remus instead. He was very handsome now that he was closer, with gorgeous sandy hair that wound into cute little curls. If only he had a sense of style, he’d be batting them off instead of going on a blind date with him. 

They made polite conversation and Remus seemed very nice, but Sirius was bored and not for the first time he wished he hadn’t come. Then Remus came out with the most outlandish, unexpected thing. 

“You look like a good shag, wanna have a bit of fun?” Sirius spit his water out across the table.

“Oh my god, I’m so sorry.” He mopped up the spilt liquid as best he could. Remus put his hand on top of Sirius’s.

“Simon, calm down, it’s only water. Now if it had been red wine I think the staff might throw you out,” He stage whispered. 

“Nah, they love me in here,” Sirius waved him off. 

“Do you come here often?” Remus asked, his brow furrowing. 

“Er, yeah, it’s my favourite and I don’t cook so…” He didn’t dare say it was where he brought all his dates. 

“So, Simon, what do you do?” Sirius felt like squirming, he hated that Remus was calling him by his fake name. 

The man was growing on him, and he could almost see a possible future with this man. 

They were tucking into their desserts. Sirius had ordered the lemon cheesecake and Remus had the chocolate fudge cake. Remus was regaling him with a prank he’d pulled at his boarding school that nearly got him kicked out. 

“The toilets blew blue water everywhere, and they had to get in a line of portaloos on the front lawn to accommodate all of us while the plumbers tried to sort out the mess I made.” Sirius laughed a genuine laugh. He had tears in his eyes and was finally enjoying himself. “Did you ever get up to mischief when you were younger, Simon?” Sirius did shudder that time. Remus looked at him concerned. “Are you alright?” Sirius swallowed and braced himself. 

“Sirius,” He said, screwing his eyes shut. 

“Huh?” Remus asked, confused.

“My name isn’t Simon, it’s Sirius. I use a fake name on dates or else people want to know about my parents or the rest of the family and I can’t deal with that.” He confessed.

“So what is your real name?” Remus asked him. 

“Sirius Black,” He watched as Remus’s eyebrows crept up his forehead. 

“Oh,” He said. Sirius closed his eyes, a bit disappointed that he wouldn’t get to see Remus again and just when he was starting to have fun. “Well, I can happily say I have absolutely no interest in your family. No offence but they’re terrible,” Sirius’s head snapped up. Wait, what?

“You really don’t care who I am?” Sirius asked in wonder. Remus shook his head. 

“Who cares where you come from? It’s about who you are that matters, and I can tell you’re nothing like them. A bit lonely, but you show me a single person who isn’t.” Sirius could have cried. Where had this amazing, caring man come from and how could he have ever wanted the date to be over because he was boring? Remus Lupin was anything but boring. 

“Want to finish up here and come back to mine for coffee?” He dared to ask, putting himself out there in a way he never had before. Remus grinned a smile so big it took Sirius’s breath away. 

“Turn it into a hot chocolate, and I’m yours,” Remus joked. Sirius felt his stomach doing summersaults. He’d never eaten a cheesecake so fast in his life. The bill was charged to his account, and they left. Sirius grabbed Remus’s hand on the way through the door and Remus linked their fingers together. Sirius felt like he could fly right now. It was ridiculous. He made a mental note to thank Marlene for the set-up. But for now, he had hot chocolate to make, he was just glad that he had the good stuff in.

[iluvchick3nz]

sorry to add another prompt to your probably really long list but I was wondering if you could write something based on a thought I had the other day:

So basically was just thinking about how Finn and Logan are best friends and know everything about each other probably and I just thought it would be cute to see them learning things that maybe they didn’t know about Leo maybe they learn that he is a super fan of something or that he played a different sport besides hockey in highschool (maybe soccer or baseball?) or they learn that he can sing or do something else crazy idk. Just a little something of them learning more about him because I know a lot of people think him being the newest in the relationship is something he should be insecure about but I actually think it’s really beautiful that he has two people who fall in love with him and immediately want to know everything about him:)))

I’m just realizing this is word vomit but I’ll send it anyway lol thank you so much!!!

This was an AMAZING excuse to finally bring to life this headcanon I have about Leo, oh my gooooooooooosh!!!!!!! I have this idea that his entire family is really good at team sports. Like, Finn is good at running, obvs, and Logan is a lifting champ, but for Leo, sports in general just come so naturally, kind of the same as Captain Sirius Black. Basketball, football, soccer, lacrosse, baseball- it doesn't matter, he picks it up super quick. I also think his parents are big sports fans, so he is as well!

So have the Knut family (and Adele Dumais) absolutely tearing it up on the diamond, and Finn and Logan trying with all their might to REAL IN their adoration and surprise (and maybe conceal the fact that they are hot and bothered by Leo's competence, too). ;)

All credits to @lumosinlove !!

“Okay, team,” Finn said. “Bring it in, let’s go.”

He wrapped an arm around Logan and Louis’s shoulders as they all huddled in a circle. It had been Coach’s idea, a family softball game to start the summer, fifteen and older all welcome on the field. It was a mix of parents, siblings, children and players. There were even some veteran players; Hope Lupin, Celeste Dumais, and Thomas’ mom, Chelsea, had dusted off their old softball gloves from college and were on the opposing team. Finn knew it was all for fun, but he was going to keep his eye on them anyways. 

“Okay,” he said, leaning his head in. “This is just for fun, remember that… but we also want to win.” He looked around the circle. “A lot of you have siblings, parents, partners, or children on the other team, but that doesn’t mean you go any easier on them, okay?” He looked at Louis and Pascal first, then at Eloise. “We are not letting Celeste and Adele beat us out, or Leo. Or my brother. I’ll never hear the end of it.”

“Ouais,” Sirius agreed. He had his focus face on. “Remus is going down.”

“Geez,” Natalie said. “Your love sure is loud, Captain.”

Sirius turned bright red. “If I lose I have to cook dinner for a week.”

“And there it is,” Natalie laughed. She turned to Kasey. “Should’ve made a bet with Alexander.”

Kasey snorted. “Absolutely not, he is way too competitive.” He nodded to Finn. “We’re all ready.”

“Okay, hands in!” They all slapped their hands in the middle of the circle. Finn nodded his head satisfactorily. “Team on three, one, two, three…”

“Team!”

Finn slapped Logan’s back and rested his other arm over Eloise’s shoulder. “How we feeling, team? Ready to kick some nutter butter butt?”

Eloise looked at him in amusement. “I wouldn’t underestimate him, honey.”

Finn raised his eyebrows. “What’s that supposed to mean?” When she just shrugged and walked away, he turned to look at Logan frantically. “Lo, what did she mean?”

Logan ran a hand through Finn’s hair. “I’m sure it’s nothing, mon coeur. She just likes to mess with you.”

Finn nodded. “Right, right. Cool, okay, I’m good.”

Logan smiled and kissed his sweaty cheek. “Relax, rouge. It’s just a game.”

“A game that I am not losing. I’ve got my boyfriend and my brother on the other team. This is bragging rights on the line, Lo.”

“D’accord.” Logan soothed him with another kiss. “D’accord, baby, let’s go play.”

They were batting first, and Finn watched on bouncing toes as Pascal stepped up to the plate, eyes scanning the field. The outfield was composed of only hockey players- Alex, the tallest, at center; Remus in left field; Thomas in right. The infield was mostly people that actually played softball- Celeste at third, Chelsea at shortstop, Hope at second. Adele, who Pascal had said had a wicked vertical jump height was at first, eyes focused and narrowed at her father. Wyatt, almost as tall as his son, was laughing with Pascal at the plate, catcher’s uniform snuggly fitting his frame. Finn knew he’d be tricky. He played in an adult league, but so did Eloise, so Finn figured they were fairly evenly matched. On the mound, scanning the field with his devastatingly gorgeous blue eyes, stood the only non-softball player in the infield, who also happened to be Finn and Logan’s most beautiful muse and biggest competition. It was a curious choice, putting someone who didn’t play the game in as pitcher, but Finn sucked in a nervous breath anyways when Leo caught him staring and winked. 

“He’s just playing with you, Freckle.”

Finn turned to look at Natalie. “He’s up to something.”

She just sighed. “Let’s go, get your bat and warm up. You’re up next.”

Finn stood in the warm up box, idly swinging his bat between his hands. Layla blew her whistle, dressed in a black umpire uniform, and crouched behind Wyatt. Dumo raised his bat. He yelled something in French at Leo, who laughed before turning sideways and readying himself. Finn watched Wyatt make a motion with his hand, and his throat closed up. His eyes flicked to Leo, who just nodded before winding his arm back. Between one moment and the next, the ball had left his fingers in a perfect underhand and before Pascal could even blink it was flying straight over the plate and into the back of Wyatt’s glove. 

“Shit,” Finn said, eyes wide. “Oh fuck.”

“I told you honey,” Eloise said, patting his arm. “Don’t underestimate him.”

“Jesus Christ, Knut!” Thomas called from the outfield. “The fuck was that, you absolute beauty!”

Leo just smiled a little sheepishly and caught the ball his dad tossed him. Pascal was shaking himself out and readying for another pitch. He came close with his swing, but there was still the satisfying slap of the ball in Wyatt’s mitt. 

“Rouge.” Logan placed a hand on his lower back. “Rouge.”

Finn hung his head back with a groan and turned to face Logan. “We’re so screwed. Where the hell did he learn to pitch like that?”

Logan just looked at him. He had that determined expression on his face that he sometimes got when he was faced with genuine competition. He huffed out a breath and took Finn’s shirt in his hands and brought their faces close together. “Don’t let him scare you. You’ve got this, rouge.”

Finn tapped his helmet gently onto Logan’s head. “Got it, ten.”

There was another slapping sound and some whoops, and Pascal dejectedly walked back to the dugout. His face was amused, though. “Mon fil,” he said to Logan, slapping his back as he walked by. “That boy of yours can play.”

Logan just hung his head back with a huff. He smacked Finn’s butt and then gently shoved him toward the plate. “Allez, rouge.”

Finn would be lying if he said he wasn’t a little nervous as he stepped up to the plate. Layla and Wyatt were laughing when he stepped up, and Layla looked at him with teasing eyes. “Looks like your lover boy has quite the arm.”

“Don’t fucking remind me.” He bounced a little and turned to Wyatt. “Where the hell did he learn to play like that?”

Wyatt laughed at him. “He played when he was little, but then he’d play in mine and Eloise’s league during the spring and summer when he could.” He looked fondly at his son. “He’s good, isn’t he?”

Finn narrowed his eyes. “Mhm.” 

He ignored Wyatt’s chuckle and set his feet, eyes on Leo on the pitcher’s mound. Leo was already looking back at him with mischievous blue eyes. Finn shook his head. He couldn’t get distracted. 

Leo’s expression turned serious before he hid his mouth and nose behind his glove. He nodded minutely, presumably at his father, before shifting. Finn took a deep breath and braced his shoulders.

The first pitch went right down the pipe, making a whistling sound as it passed by. Finn had been shocked when he saw the first pitch Pascal had taken, but it was nothing compared to actually being at the plate and experiencing it. Finn let out a surprised sound and stumbled back a bit.

“C’mon Harz!”

“Allez, Finn!”

He rolled out his shoulders and neck before stepping back up to the plate. This time, he timed his swing, and the ball bounced off his bat with a satisfying thwack! He dropped his bat and ran, but he was only halfway down the baseline before he watched the ball land efficiently in Adele’s glove on a throw from Chelsea, her foot sturdy on the plate. He groaned as he ran through. Adele just grinned at him and tossed the ball back to Leo. “Better luck next time, Finn.”

“Ha-ha.” He flicked her hat brim down before jogging back down the baseline. “Hey Knut! The fuck is up with that?”

Leo just played innocent and shrugged with a devious little smile. Finn hated that it made him look gorgeous.

Back at the dugout, Logan was waiting for him with his arms crossed and an intense look on his face. He winced when he saw Finn. “It’s all right, rouge.”

Finn huffed. “They’re all fucking all-stars or some shit. I thought this was supposed to be a fun game.”

Eloise laughed as she passed by, bat swinging in her hands. “Don’t take it so seriously, honey. You’ll be fine.” Then she was stepping up to the plate.

They cheered her on from the dugout, Sirius and Louis leading the charge and shaking the fence. They both had the same intense expression on their faces as Logan. It was clear they were all surprised by the advanced skills on the other team.

Finn and Logan stood close, shoulders touching as they watched Eloise tap her husband’s helmet playfully before sobering up, raising her bat. Leo smiled briefly before once again hiding his face with his mitt, blue eyes intense. The routine was the same: the settling of his feet, his arm winding up, the ball leaving his hands at an impressive speed, flying down the middle-

None of them were expecting the resounding crack of Eloise’s bat against the ball that sent it sailing over Leo’s head and into the outfield.

“Holy shit!” Finn yelled. He bounced up and down, cheering with the rest of their team. “Yeah, Eloise!”

She ran fast, clearing first and heading for second. Thomas had recovered the ball and threw it, landing it in Hope’s waiting glove just after Eloise’s foot touched the base. 

“Allez!” Sirius yelled. He was smiling gleefully now. “Double, Eloise, allez!”

“Holy shit,” Finn whispered to Logan. “Our in-laws are softball wizards or some shit.”

“Ouais,” Logan said back. He sighed and rolled his neck. “Allez, I’m up.”

Finn smacked his butt. “Go get ‘em.”

Logan ended up hitting a single into center field, Alex just mistiming the throw, and Adele caught it a second after Logan’s foot hit the base. He let out a shout and patted her head in celebration, and she just shoved him playfully, spewing what Finn assumed was some vulgar French trash talk, if the way her mother reprimanded her was anything to go by. She huffed, but threw the ball back to Leo. Finn scanned the field; Logan’s hit had advanced Eloise to third. They just needed one more hit and she’d be home.

“Okay,” Finn said. He patted Sirius’ shoulders as he went to step up to the plate. “Okay, Cap, you got this. No losing to Remus, remember?”

Sirius didn’t say anything, just nodded curtly. His gray eyes were focused and icy as he walked out. He raised his bat, expression unreadable.

Leo threw two perfect strikes, Sirius letting out a frustrated huff every time he swung and missed. The third pitch, however, landed right on his bat and the ball sailed overhead- and right into Remus’ glove.

“Oh, come on!”

Remus just laughed loudly at his husband as he and his team began to clear the field. “Gotcha, baby!”

Sirius gritted his teeth and turned back to the dugout. “Allez, we need to field well, let’s go.”

“Yikes,” Natalie said drily. “Captain Scary has made an appearance.”

Sirius just sucked his teeth and picked up his glove.

“Okay, listen up!” Kasey called. He read from his clipboard. “Nat, you’re pitching, Logan, you’re catch. Louis, you’re at short, Eloise at second. Cap, Dumo, Lyall, you’re all outfield. Cole’s at third, Finn’s at first.” He looked up at them all. “Everyone else, you’ll sit this inning out, and we’ll rotate you in the next one so everyone gets a turn.”

There was a shuffling of people putting their gloves on and light chatter, then they were jogging out onto the field to the cheers of some of their friends and family in the stands. Finn waved to his and Logan’s parents before taking his place on first base. It was close enough to the other dugout that he could hear them cheering, but he tried to focus in on the plate.

They warmed up with some throwing before Layla signaled it was time to get started. Noelle was up first, her long braids swishing against her back as she stepped up to the plate. She knocked her knuckles on Logan’s helmet and he looked up at her. Finn didn’t need to see his face to know he was scowling.

Natalie was a good pitcher. She threw straight, even if not as fast as Leo, and could throw a mean change-up. Noelle landed a pop hit into right field and took off running to cheers.

“Let’s fucking go, Christmas!” Thomas shouted. 

Finn watched as the ball landed just out of Sirius’ reach and he scrambled to pick it up. His throw was a bit wild, so Finn had to leave the base to catch it, allowing Noelle to just get there in time. She was breathing hard as she turned to Finn. “Nice try, Fish.” She tilted her head. “Hey, like our star pitcher?”

Finn narrowed his eyes. “I have no alliance with him in this game.”

“I don’t know, wait until you see him in those baseball pants.” Her eyes flashed to Thomas, who was whistling shrilly at her, and she smiled. “Nothing sexier than an ass in baseball pants.”

“Ugh, stop that. I’m trying to focus.”

She just pretended to zip her mouth shut and readied herself to run.

Natalie struck Remus out, much to Sirius’ delight, but Noelle did end up stealing second. Leo was up next, and he left the dugout to lots of cheering and whistling. He said something to Logan with a fond smile and a tap to his helmet, then steadied his bat above his shoulder. Finn really tried not to look at his ass in those pants, he really did, but it was a failed attempt, and he sucked in a breath as he looked away briefly. Noelle smirked at him, and he stuck his tongue out at her.

Leo took a ball and a strike, and after the second pitch he stepped out of the box to take a couple practice swings. He looked focused and determined when he stepped back in, eyes boring into Natalie’s from her place on the mound. She steadied herself and sent the ball flying in what Finn thought would be a perfect strike, but Leo timed it beautifully, and with a swing so fast it made a swooshing sound he sent the ball in a perfect arc to left field, just beyond Lyall’s reach but still within the outfield.

The next thing Finn knew, Leo was flying past him and rounding to second. Lyall had caught the ball and sent it to Pascal, who’d shifted to receive it, but it was no use. No sooner had Pascal turned to send it to Eloise at second then Leo was flying over that base, too, and hustling to third, Noelle sprinting to home plate. Cole slapped his glove in urgency, but caught the ball just after Leo arrived, jerking as he came to a halt to keep his foot on the base. He was breathing hard, but smiling. Noelle had cleared home easily, much to the obvious chagrin of her little brother, and was being picked up by a shouting Thomas and carried into the dugout, her head thrown back in a laugh. There were lots of cheers and back slaps for her, then Alex picked up his bat and made his way towards the box, but not before he cupped his hands around his mouth to shout at Finn. “How does it feel, little bro?”

Finn heard Logan’s frustrated grunt and narrowed his eyes at Alex’s smirk, but didn’t say anything. He couldn’t let himself go this early in the game- not, at least, if he wanted to win.

Alex ended up getting out on an impressive zinger from Eloise, who threw so hard it actually hurt Finn’s hand to catch the ball, even with his glove on. He laughed loudly in Alex’s face, but Alex just rolled his eyes. “Got blondie across home plate, though, didn’t I?”

Finn’s smile faded abruptly as he looked at the opposing dugout. Wyatt was shaking Leo’s shoulders excitedly as he made his way to sit down. Logan stood up and watched them, mask pulled up and away from his face. Finn saw him stare at Leo’s butt in his pants, then watched as he realized Finn caught him and blushed. Finn sighed. They were so fucked.

Chelsea was up next and walked. Wyatt was after her and bunted impressively, allowing Chelsea to advance, even if he got out. But Adele’s pop fly was caught easily by her father, and then they were changing out again. Finn met Logan at the entrance to the dugout. He was sweating in his catcher’s gear, shaking out his hair as he took off his helmet. Despite himself, Finn smiled and kissed his cheek. “You know, you are a very sexy catcher. Might have to make a career change.”

Logan rolled his eyes, but was grinning as he kissed Finn on the mouth. “Je t’aime.”

“Love you.” Finn took a deep breath and squared his shoulders. “Now, c’mon. We gotta focus if we want to beat the love of our lives, let’s go.”

Cole was up first and hit a double off of Leo’s second pitch. Louis then ran on a drop-third strike, but Wyatt sent it perfectly into Adele’s glove. Cole did end up at third, then crossed home on Kuny’s single, but Celeste snatched the ball out of the air with ease. With two outs, Kuny walking a bit dejectedly back to the dugout, Finn started to feel the pressure. Natalie hit a perfect single just out of Noelle’s reach in the outfield, though, which set them up with at least a man on base. Logan was up to hit after her, and Finn drew him close with an arm around his shoulders and touched their foreheads together. “I know he’s distracting, but you can’t let him get to you. He’s just your opponent out there.” He sighed. “A very sexy opponent, but an opponent nonetheless.”

Logan nodded. “Ouais. Ouais, d’accord, I’ve got this.”

“You’ve got this.”

“I’ve got this.”

Logan took a deep breath, then walked up to the plate, cheers following him from the dugout. He tapped his bat against his shoes and rolled out his shoulders, squaring up to face the mound. Leo winked at him.

“Fuck,” Finn muttered. “C’mon, baby, don’t get distracted.”

Leo’s first pitch went a little high, and Logan dutifully let it pass by as Layla called it a ball. 

“Okay.” Finn tapped his foot. “Good, baby, good, c’mon.”

Logan drew two balls, then swung and missed for his first strike. After the second strike and Logan’s frustrated huff, Finn began to chew the inside of his cheek.

“Full count,” Pascal said from beside him. “It’s fine, Logan does well under pressure.”

“This is high stakes, Dumo. Bragging rights.”

A snort. “Mon Dieu, you three are competitive.”

Finn watched as Leo took a steadying breath, centering himself before preparing for his next pitch. He sent it right down the middle, and Finn let out a shout as Logan cracked it off his bat. But the victory was short lived, because in an impossible leap, Leo stretched his long (gorgeous) arm out and dove, snatching the ball just before he fell to the ground. 

Logan let out a loud curse and went to pick up his bat, practically marching back to the dugout with a scowl. Finn met him and held his hands out to settle against his shoulders. “Whoa, hey, baby, it’s just a game.”

Logan walked past him and sat heavily on the bench, whipping his helmet off and thumping his head against the wall. When he looked at Finn, his face was frustrated and- flushed? 

“Fuck,” Logan said, before muttering rapidly in French. “The fuck is he doing, just looking like that? He just- I can’t- I’m trying to focus!”

Finn gaped for a minute, realization dawning over him, before he gasped delightedly. “Oh my God!”

Logan glared at him. “Rouge-”

“Oh my God, you’re turned on.” When Logan shushed him, he lowered his voice and went to stand between his legs and cup Logan’s blushing cheeks. “Oh, baby, you’re so turned on right now.” 

“Shut up.”

“Nuh-uh, no way.” He felt giddy and bent to look into Logan’s eyes. “Really? This is doing it for you?”

“Don’t pretend it’s not doing it for you, too!”

“Oh, I’m not.” He pressed a kiss to the top of Logan’s head and drew him in for a hug. “Okay, we’ll be fine. Just a few more innings, then we can go see him.”

“But then there’s team dinner-”

“Which we can leave early.”

“His parents.”

“They’d stay long after we would leave, anyways, you know how they are. Eloise dances until the sun comes up with my mom and the Walkers, and Wyatt chats with Dumo and Lyall for ages every time. At Christmas we had to drag them home.”

Logan just let out a groan into his chest. “I can’t do this.”

Finn stepped back and pulled Logan onto his feet. “Well, you’re gonna have to. Because sunshine can be sexy all he wants, but he’s not gonna win.”

Finn was, however, proven mistaken. Four and a half innings later and Thomas and James were dumping a cooler of ice water on Leo’s back as he crossed home plate, Natalie standing on the pitcher’s mound gaping at where the ball had flown over the fence. It had been a competitive game, the opposing team going into their final at-bat tied with the other team 6-6, and Finn’s team had been fielding fantastic, but it was apparently no match for six-feet-and-three-inches of pure muscle and skill. Leo’s walk-off homer had pushed Noelle and Adele across the plate, too, and Finn had known at that moment that they had absolutely lost. He sighed, squinting against the late afternoon sun, and watched as Leo laughed and was pulled into a hug by his father.

“I told you honey.” Eloise had come to stand beside him and placed a comforting hand on his back. “Don’t underestimate my Leo. He’s got quite a skill set.”

He wrapped an arm around her shoulders. “More like a super power.” He gave her a squeeze and smiled down at her. “Hey, you played great, too. That double play in the third was insane.”

She grinned, pleased. “Aw, thanks, honey. Lots of practice, me and Wyatt. You boys should come play the next time you’re down.”

“I’m sure we will.” He looked back at home plate to see Logan sigh heavily. “Yikes, better go comfort grumpy. I’ll be right back.”

She patted his back and went to go talk to Natalie on the pitcher’s mound, and Finn jogged over to home plate. When he got there, he smiled and wrapped a slightly dejected Logan up in a hug. “You played good, baby.”

“Merci. You, too.”

Finn kissed his cheek. “Just no match for our MLB All-Star, huh?”

“What’s that about me?”

Finn and Logan turned to find Leo grinning at them broadly, soaking hair pushed back to reveal his blue eyes in a way that did not help the flush Finn knew was tinting his ears. He looked Leo up and down. “Just wondering where in the hell you learned to pitch like that.”

Leo winked. “So I might have played a little in New Orleans.” His gaze turned soft and he approached them. “Good game. You guys played great.”

“Soleil,” Logan said, voice slightly hushed. He went to go play with the chain hanging down in between the open top buttons of Leo’s jersey. He then gripped the fabric in his fingers and dragged Leo down into a kiss. “Mon coeur.”

Leo looked confused for a second before his eyes lit up. “Oh my God.” He laughed quietly and cupped Logan’s hips. “Really?” When Logan nodded, the highs of his cheeks red, Leo smiled even wider. “Oh, honey. Look at you.”

“Leo.”

“Sh, sh.” Leo drew Logan in for a hug and placed his mouth by his ear, whispering just loud enough so Finn could hear, too. “Sh, sweetheart, I’ve got you.”

Logan let out a soft sound and settled into Leo’s body, Leo smiling at Finn over his shoulder. Finn bit his lip and came up behind Logan to give Leo a brief kiss. “What can we say? Your skills are irresistible, baby.” 

Leo made a happy sound and kissed Logan’s cheek before standing more upright. “Thank you.” He slung an arm around each of their shoulders, his body pleasantly cool from the ice water, and smiled brightly. “So, how fast are we leaving this team dinner?”

Finn laughed. “Oh, so fast. We’ll see if Lo even makes it there.”

Leo’s dimples deepened. “Well, we’ve got time. I’m sure we could find a shady spot in a parking lot on the way to Dumo’s.”

Finn perked up. “Really?”

“Yes, really.”

Logan looked up at Leo with raised eyebrows. “But we’re all sweaty.”

Leo just shrugged. “What can I say, you both looked good out there. Finn holds a baseball very gracefully.” He bent to nuzzle Logan’s cheek. “And those baseball pants do wonders for you, baby.”

Logan blinked slowly, lips slightly parted. “Huh.”

Leo kissed his mouth twice in a burst, then patted each of their backs before walking towards his dugout. “Let’s go, clean-up time. I also gotta find my mama, that double play was awesome.”

“Yeah!” Finn called after him. “When were you gonna tell us you’re all a bunch of prodigies?”

Leo just turned, dropped a devastating wink, and went to help organize the dugout.

Finn let out a sigh and turned to Logan. “Damn. He just gets sexier every day, doesn’t he?”

“Ouais,” Logan nodded. He looped his arms around Finn’s neck. “I like still learning stuff about him.” 

Finn smiled and kissed him. “Yeah, me, too. Like still learning stuff about both of you.” He patted Logan’s butt. “Like how you look really good in these pants. Le, too.”

Logan’s eyes were fond as he tugged Finn’s hair. “Allez, let’s clean up and go find our families. I’m sure Noelle and Alex are looking for us.”

Finn rolled his eyes. “Ugh. Losers.”

“Non, rouge, us.”

“Yeah, yeah, whatever.” He bent to wrap his arms around the backs of Logan’s thighs to lift him up with a grunt, grinning at Logan’s loud laugh. “Let’s go, ten, then we get sunshine time.”

“And you time.”

“And you time.” Finn bit at the skin of Logan’s waist that was closest to his mouth, his shirt having ridden up a bit against Finn’s body. “Mm, you’re tasty.”

“Rouge.”

Finn just laughed, feeling light and in love, and carried him into the dugout. 

[moonyscribe]

Pebbles - trans Regulus - word count: 1047

I wanted to write a moment between Reggie and Sirius where Regulus comes out to him as trans. I had this little idea a while ago and I finally got it written down :)

lmk how you like it and if I should make more :))

⬇️⬇️⬇️

Regulus Black was not a girl. No one knew that, of course. He had known all his life—but only last year, on his tenth birthday when he had discovered the name “Regulus” in Latin class, had he truly come to terms with this fact. To anyone else, he would be known as his deadname which stung horribly when it was uttered. He would hate to cause distress and disturbance amongst the Black family because of his ‘confusion’, as his mother would likely call it. And to disgrace himself was to disgrace the entire Black family. Mortifying. Regulus shuddered off the thought as he stared across the lake in his backyard. One might find having a lake in your backyard to be odd, but for the Black family, it was perfectly acceptable. The air was crisp and clean. The soft breeze brushed his face and hair. The sun was closer to the horizon than to its apex so it glittered brightly atop the dark water. A soft crunch of the small stones behind Regulus alerted him of someone approaching. He tensed subconsciously and braced himself for some kind of reprimanding. 

“Relax, Celie,” Regulus’s brother, Sirius, drawled. Celie. Regulus hated the nickname. Almost as much as he hated the femininity of Celeste.

“Hello, Sirius,” Regulus replied blandly as Sirius took a seat next to him. Sirius was everything Regulus wanted to be and yet everything Regulus couldn’t be. It wasn’t that he couldn’t be, per se… it was just… Regulus saw what his mother did to Sirius—regardless of whether he was supposed to or not. Muffled cries still rang in his ears when the silencing charms began to fade. He saw the blood staining the carpet that Kreacher had not yet cleaned. He watched Sirius limp and wince whenever he walked after one of those nights. So Celeste he was, and Celeste he’d stay. 

“Alright?” Sirius prompted Regulus, fiddling with the small pebbles surrounding them.

“Fine,” Regulus huffed. He wasn’t in the mood for speaking. He curled his knees up to his chest and rested his head against them. He hadn’t been in the mood to talk with Sirius ever since he had gotten back from Hogwarts. He would rant every day about how wonderful Gryffindor house was and all about his new best friends and how much fun he had… without Regulus.

“Are you sure?” Sirius pressed. Regulus didn’t respond. He didn’t feel like lying. Sirius poked Regulus’s arm. “Come on, I know when my little sister isn’t happy,” another silence. “Can I please know what’s wrong, Celie?” Regulus sighed, pulling away from his brother. He heard Sirius stand as the small rocks under foot slid down and into the water. Regulus lifted his head and watched them all plop into the lake. It was likely that those pebbles would never be graced with sunlight ever again, condemned to a lifetime imprisonment of the cerulean depths of the water. 

“Sirius,” Regulus said. No turning back now…

“Hm?”

“What do you know about the name ‘Regulus’?” Regulus asked cautiously. 

“Well,” Sirius began. “I know that it’s a star. I learned that in our dearest mumsie’s latin classes.” Sirius’s voice dripped with sarcasm. “Why?”

“Just… What do you think of it? As a name?” Regulus said, growing more anxious by the minute. 

Sirius skipped another rock and watched it skid across the surface of the water before saying, “Regulus? I think it’s a good name. Much better than Sirius, obviously.”

Regulus swallowed, his mouth feeling dry. “What if… what if it was my name?”

Sirius paused before skipping another rock, turning to look over at Regulus. “What do you mean?”

“It’s just… Is it alright if I’m a boy?” Regulus squeezed his eyes shut and held his breath. This was a mistake. A terrible, terrible mistake. He shouldn’t have said anything—

Sirius considered for a moment before shrugging and plopping down next to Regulus. “I don't see what not.”

Regulus blinked, bewildered. “Th—that’s it?!”

“Yeah,” Sirius said, placing an arm around Regulus’s shoulders. “Your name is Regulus and you’re a boy. Easy as that.”

“B—but won’t mother and father—”

“This isn’t about them,” Sirius rolled his eyes. “This is about what you want.”

Regulus considered for a moment. “But—”

Sirius interrupted him by hauling Regulus to his feet. “Come on,” Sirius said. “Let’s test this out.” He said, gesturing to the lake.

“What?”

“Just watch me,” Sirius picked up a disk-like pebble. “You can be a boy. Anyone who wants to can be a boy, Regulus,” Sirius flicked the rock and watched as it skips across the water smoothly before sinking. “That,” he said with a dramatic flip of his hair. “is how you become a man.”

“By… skipping rocks,” Regulus watched as Sirius found another disk-like pebble and pressed it into Regulus’s palm. 

“Exactly,” Sirius nodded. “Go on. Give it a go.”

Regulus recalled how Sirius had done it. It seemed easy enough. Regulus mimicked the way Sirius flicked the pebble across the water and watched it skip three times before sinking. 

“Not half bad…” Sirius said in a satisfied tone. 

“Sirius, what does this have to do with me being a boy?” Regulus questioned. 

“Reggie,” Sirius said incredulously. “Skipping rocks is one of the fundamental principles that transition you from being a boy to a man. It might be one of the manliest things a man could do.”

“That’s redundant,” Regulus stated. 

“Whatever,” Sirius waved it off. “The point is: you can be a boy, Reg. I accept you for it and I will willingly beat up anyone who doesn’t. But this is how a boy becomes a man. Believe me. Snivellus couldn’t skip a rock if his life depended on it, and Pete can’t do it either. You’ve already got it. You don’t have to tell our parents unless you want to. If you don’t feel safe doing so, they don’t deserve to know,” Sirius crouched down to select another flat pebble. He handed it to Regulus. “I’m glad you could tell me, Reg.”

“Thanks, Sirius,” Regulus hugged his brother.

“‘Course, Reggie,” Sirius ruffled Regulus’s hair.

Regulus smiled fondly at Sirius and then at the pebble in his hand before flicking it across the lake and watching it skid over the water before sinking to the bottom of the lake.

[hoaxriot]

FOR THE FIRST TIME

pairings. sirius black x fem!reader

synopsis. years had passed and your daughter was at hogwarts. your husband was out and had not showed himself yet.

notes. this is part two coney island! i also put a name for the kid but you can imagine any other name or gender i just chose this so it would be easier to write. this follows the scenes of the movie in the shrieking shack. idk why i wrote most of the scene but i felt it was important and some things are a bit different.

it had been years since your friends were murdered by one of your best friends and your husband was put in askaban for it. of course, years since you had given birth to your only kid, your daughter— celeste. she had become your entire world after she was born.

you continued to live with remus after because you still needed that help and he was glad to do it. his dream became true and he had became uncle moony.

celeste’s first words were moony and he was thrilled about it, soon after she turned one you moved back home but he was still around. life had started to become better as celeste grew up, everything was okay again. you still missed your friends dearly but after celeste you knew you could not stay in bed all day, she made you happy.

when your daughter started to grow you knew she was a wizard which made you happy. time came around where she could finally understand that other families had a father around and she didn’t.

the right age, you sat her down and explained to her in the best way possible with remus to help.

then it was time for celeste to go to hogwarts and you to become a professor. ever since then, life had been better. your daughter was sorted into gryffindor and she had found herself friends, she was happy so you were too. of course, one of her friends were harry potter which made you happy but he had not know you even though his father was your best friend.

just days before now, you had learned the truth about who killed your friends and who was framed because of remus lupin. that’s how you found yourself running into the whomping willow like you had done multiple times before.

your daughter was in there, you knew of it. you watched as remus shoved the door open and yell a spell. you ran in behind him to see your husband, sirius black on the floor with remus pointing his wand at him. you looked up to see your daughter standing beside hermione with fear struck in her eyes.

moving your eyes back to your husband who was being pulled up by remus into a hug, “i found him!” you heard sirius say causing a frown to come upon your lips. sirius had not noticed you standing behind remus.

“let’s kill him.” sirius said pulling away from the hug, you still stood frozen behind remus. too in shock, your husband was in front of you while your kid was a few feet away from you. sirius was older just like you, he has a beard and he still wore his askaban clothing.

hermione started to yell at remus causing him to turn towards the girl, then sirius saw you. it didn’t feel real the way you stood in front him, you looked the same as you did the night he got taken away. sirius has waited for this moment since then, he saw you look towards the kids. confused he sees you meeting eye contact with one that looked like him and you. was that—

he got distracted by remus and his anger. remus told him to wait after he started to yell.

“i did my waiting! twelve years of it… in askaban!” sirius yelled in desperation causing tears to evade your eyesight and your daughter to flinch.

remus gave his wand to sirius, “very well, kill him. but wait one more minute. harry has the right to know why.” the potter boy started to yell at sirius and remus blaming him for the death of his parents. he had every right to, he didn’t know. then professor snape came in. harry then yelled a spell and he went flying. celeste scrambled back against the wall causing you to look at her in sadness, this must’ve been so confusing for her.

then somehow sirius got rons rat from him and turned him back to what he truly was, peter pettigrew. they dragged him from the hole in the wall, pushing him into the middle of the room. sirius grabbed your hand and pushed you behind him a bit.

of course, peter tried to play nice in some way but he was failing miserably. he also failed at trying to get his way. now you were walking behind the granger girl with your daughter as she held onto your hand tightly. she always thought she would run straight into her father’s arms but neither of you did.

once you climbed out of the whomping willow, sirius put ron down and celeste dragged you away.

“mom, why didn’t you hug dad?” she questioned letting go of your hand facing you, you smiled sweetly at her.

“i wanted to, badly. things were a bit difficult down there.” the both of you laughed lightly. your smiled dropped when you saw sirius making his way to the two of you. celeste noticed your expression and before she could say or do anything you took off in a jog to jump into sirius’s arms.

sirius caught you with a large smile as he wrapped his arms around your waist, clinging onto, all the years he missed with you. you still had the same vanilla smell to you, the same grip you always had on him when the two of you hugged.

there was just one thing different— the kid watching you, the kid who immediately ran into your arms and stayed with you until now. you could feel sirius lose his grip on your jacket, you knew what he was looking at so you pulled away still holding onto his arm.

“c’mere.” you said to him as you pulled his arm towards celeste, you felt her nervousness so you smiled at her.

“sirius, this is celeste,” you saw his smile grow at the name, he had brought the name up one time when you two were talking about kids, “celeste, this is sirius… your father, as you know.” you spoke looking at her, she was quiet which scared sirius until she threw herself into him, very hardly causing him to let out a small ‘hmph.’

nonetheless, he hugged her back. you smiled at the interaction. he then heard her start to cry, your smile dropped a bit but you knew she was just like you and cried at overwhelming times. sirius then brought his hand to her head rubbing it comfortingly. at that action, she gripped onto him harder.

sirius opened his eyes to see your eyes filled with tears, he laughed a bit also knowing how you were, crying when you were happy. celeste heard him and pulled away to see you as a tear fell down your cheek.

“mum!” she laughed at you making you gasp playfully, “don’t mum me, you’re crying too.” you spoke pointing at her tear covered face. she then copied your playful gasp.

“don’t mind me, i just met my dad.” celeste joked causing sirius to laugh, she had humor just like him which made him smile as he laughed. he moved to stand beside you wrapping his arm around your waist.

“let’s go home,” he whispered into your ear but then you were distracted by each other again when remus started to transform causing the moment to be ruined.

that night was only a few nights ago, but now you were sitting in the noble house of black on the floor around the coffee table playing a game with celeste and sirius.

games had become something you and celeste did every night she was home, sirius was more than glad to be apart of that.

he finally had what he has always wanted, you— his wife. a kid who loved him and who he loved, giving her a life he had never once had. he was free and happy.

[pupsmailbox]

SPACE︰ALIEN ID PACK

NAMES︰ ace. adam. adrian. alastair. alcyone. aldebaran. algol. ali. alice. alien. altair. alteis. alu. andromeda. antlia. aphelion. apollo. aquila. ara. archer. ariel. aries. arion. artemis. ash. aster. asteroid. astra. astraios. astro. atlas. auriga. aurora. avior. ayla. beast. beep. beli. blue. buzz. caph. carina. castor. celest. celeste. celestia. celestine. cepheus. cetus. chao. chaoph. charon. cheicha. cielo. claudii. comet. constellation. cos. cosmo. cosmos. cyllene. cyra. danica. darby. delphini. dia. dione. disk. diz. dizzy. draco. dust. dustin. echo. eclipse. element. elijah. ello. enfys. epoch. eric. eris. errai. esfir. esther. exo. gal. galaxie. galaxy. gamma. ganymede. gee. gia. glimmer. glob. glow. gnarp. gnarpy. gravity. hadean. hale. hercules. horizon. hubble. hue. ian. icy. inia. io. ion. jamie. janus. jovian. julia. julian. juliet. juno. jupi. jupiter. kepler. kiva. kuiper. kulpar. larissa. laxy. lee. leo. lepton. lethe. lia. lien. light. lili. link. lumen. lumine. luna. lunar. lutetia. mars. martian. martin. matter. matza. merak. mercury. mil. milky. milkyway. mira. miranda. moon. moony. muon. naiad. naos. naut. nebula. neil. neptune. nereid. neso. net. nix. niyr. nova. nyx. nyxie. oberon. onyx. oranos. orbit. orcus. orion. pan. pandora. phoebe. pion. pisces. pla. planet. pleiad. pleiades. pluto. pollux. princey. quark. radio. rigel. ring. rings. ro. rock. rocket. rocky. roy. royal. ruban. rupert. saturn. sedna. shine. singularity. sirius. sitara. sky. skye. skylar. slime. sol. solar. solaris. soliel. soraya. space. sparkle. star. star/starry. stark. starla. starlet. starlight. starling. starry. starshine. starz. stelae. stella. stellan. stellar. stelle. steller. stelmaria. steren. stiorra. sun. sunny. tauri. terra. theo. triton. trix. umbriel. ursa. varuna. vega. venus. vity. void. warp. wisteria. yufo. zeepy. zenith. zeppy. zoop. zygon.

PRONOUNS︰ aer/aero. al/alien. ali/alien. alien/alien. arp/arp. as/astroid. as/astrum. as/troid. aster/astro. asteroid/asteroid. astro/astronaut. astro/astronomical. astro/astronomy. astroid/astroid. astronaut/astronaut. atom/atom. beep/beep. bri/bright. ce/celestial. cel/celestial. celestial/celestial. co/comet. co/cosmic. co/cosmo. com/comet. com/et. comet/comet. comets/comet. constellation/constellation. cos/cosmic. cos/cosmos. cos/mic. cos/mos. cosmic/cosmic. cosmos/cosmo. cosmos/cosmos. cro/crown. cryp/cryptic. cryptic/cryptic. de/deep. dee/deep. deep/deep. dus/dust. empty/empty. enigma/enigma. equinox/equinox. ex/exo. extra/extraterrest. extraterrestrial/extraterrestrial. flu/flux. gal/galaxy. galaxy/galaxy. gem/gem. gleeb/gleeb. gleeb/glob. gleep/gleep. gleep/glorp. glim/glimmer. glo/glow. glob/glob. glorp/glorp. glow/glow. gneep/gnarp. gravity/gravity. gray/gray. green/green. grey/grey. hur/hurp. hx/hxm. hy/hym. h✩/h✩m. ic/ice. infinite/infinite. ix/ix. kuiper/kuiper. leo/leonid. li/light. lue/lumin. lune/lunar. mars/mars. martian/martian. meep/mop. mi/milk. milky/milky. milky/way. mo/moon. moon/moon. muo/moon. mys/mystery. myst/myst. myst/mystery. mystery/mystery. nebu/nebu. nebula/nebula. neon/neon. nep/neptune. neu/neutron. night/night. noe/nova. nova/nova. or/orbit. orbit/orbit. out/outer. outer/outer. outer/outerspace. outer/space. outerspace/outerspace. outside/outside. par/parsec. pla/planet. plan/planet. planet/planet. pul/pulsar. pul/pulse. pur/purple. purple/purple. qua/quasar. quark/quark. ray/ray. ri/ring. ro/rock. ro/rocket. rocket/rocket. satellite/satellite. sci/sci. shi/shine. shine/shine. ship/ship. shx/hxr. shy/hyr. sh✩/h✩r. silly/silly. solar/solar. spa/space. spa/spaceship. spa/sparkle. space/craft. space/ship. space/space. space/spacecraft/spacecraft. space/spaceship. spacecraft/spacecraft. spaceship/spaceship. sped/oopper. spi/spin. sta/star. stae/star. star/star. star/starry. stardust/stardust. stare/stare. ste/stellar. stell/stellar. strange/strange. stranger/stranger. su/sun. sun/sun. tele/telescope. thr/throne. thxy/thxm. thy/thym. th✩y/th✩m. tu/turn. ufo/ufo. uni/universe. uni/verse. universe/universe. unknow/unknown. unknown/unknown. vast/vast. venus/venus. violet/violet. vis/vision. vo/void. voi/void. void/void. wa/water. warp/warp. weird/weird. xae/xaem. xe/xer. xey/xem. xi/xir. xy/xym. xyr/xym. ze/zer. zeb/zob. zeep/glorp. zeep/zeep. zeep/zorp. zib/zab. zorp/zorp. zy/zym. ☄️. ✨. ✩t/✩t. ❓. ❔. ⭐. 🌀. 🌌. 🌕. 🌙. 🌟. 🌠. 👽. 👾. 💫. 📟. 📡. 🔭. 🚀. 🛰️. 🛸. 🧪. 🪐.

[celesteablack]

What does "celesteablack" mean ?

so i created this account during my harry potter phase ye usse inspired hai

i have read a lot about the black family in au (sirius black ka khandaan) to vahan se unka surname lia BLACK

then the blacks had a tradition of naming the children after stars and constellations, so 1st name CELESTE , a name with latin orign which means heavenly (shines like a star)

aur A stands for ASTRAEA (middlename), a name with greek and latin orign which means star-maiden or starry-night.

isse ye naam aaya Celeste Astraea Black which gives us Celesteablack.

[fruitcoops]

The Shiplap of Amontillado

Day 11: no movie for this one, just The Horrors (TM) of HGTV. Characters belong to @lumosinlove, header is from @noots-fic-fests! I can't believe it's almost over :(

Day 10 movie: Little Shop of Horrors (1986)

Ugly, Pascal thought. The house was ugly as hell. Was he in hell?

“We are just so excited for this next part,” the realtor gushed, leading them around the next corner. “Soo many modern homes these days don’t have parlors, but since you guys decided to go with something more old-fashioned, you get all the benefits!”

“Old-fashioned?” Pascal asked weakly. The house looked the same as the one he grew up in.

Jesus fuck, was he in his parents’ house?

“It’s sooo easy to convert something like this into a family room.” The realtor swept her hand in an abstract circle in the doorway to the parlor. Her smile showed far too many of her teeth for Pascal to feel at ease.

He risked a glance down at Celeste and his heart sank. She was nodding along. The terror of it all.

“The wood paneling might have to go,” the realtor said, all sweet apologies. “It’s really fallen out of fashion and darkens the room. I understand if that’s a dealbreaker, but I really encourage you to think of the room’s potential before making any decisions.”

Pascal stared. “Can’t we just…take it off the wall?”

The realtor looked immediately at Celeste with a strange cooing noise. “You got yourself a handyman?”

“I’m very lucky,” Celeste laughed, squeezing Pascal around the waist. She looked up at him with so much excitement that it was hard to remain unsettled. “What do you think? I like this one a lot, even if it’s a bit creaky.”

Creaky. Pascal had grown up here. The horror was back full-force. “Ah…”

“I know you’re on a bit of a time crunch,” the realtor said sympathetically. “I have all the paperwork on me, though, so you could sign today if you wanted to. I really think this is a good option for you two.”

“Two?” His head was spinning. Celeste appeared unbothered. “The kids—did we even start packing yet?”

She patted his chest. “Don’t worry, my love. We can do it tonight.”

“Tonight?”

“Such a worrywart,” she sighed with an affectionate shake of her head at the realtor, who gave a saccharine smile.

Pascal did not like that woman. “What about the kids?”

Celeste’s forehead crinkled. “They moved out, Pascal. We drove Katie to college last weekend.”

“But…” He had bought the radio set in that cabinet for his father for Christmas when he was seventeen. The cabinet itself belonged to his grandmother. Katie was in college. Despair. Sorrow. Awful, awful things. “But I tucked her into bed last night.”

“This has been a stressful time.” Celeste smoothed the arm of his shirt free of wrinkles, then kissed his cheek. “You’ve been so busy! And with such a last-minute move, too. We’ve had no time to really think about how much is changing.”

“Changing,” Pascal echoed.

Celeste’s smile seemed genuine, at least. She held tight to his hand, guiding him to follow her into the parlor. “I like this one. It’ll be good and quiet, nice and far from all of that Gryffindor noise.”

Pascal stopped in his tracks. Wrong. This whole thing was wrong, but that—“You love Gryffindor.”

“Hmm?” Celeste hummed mildly.

“You love Gryffindor,” he repeated. A spot behind his eye was aching. “You like it more than New York. You don’t want to leave Sirius and Logan and Lily and all your friends, and you love the city.”

“I do,” Celeste agreed easily. She stepped back out of the living room and nudged her forehead into his shoulder. Her expression turned soft and relaxed on one long exhale; he cupped the back of her head in his hand and kissed the top of her dark hair, lingering there. His heart was racing, but sandalwood and vanilla slowed it soon.

“I think we should go home,” he offered. We need to get out of my parents’ house before I run out screaming and end up on the evening news. “And maybe we can get ice cream on the way home.”

He felt Celeste snort. “It’s the middle of the afternoon.”

“I need ice cream.” Fuck it, he needed therapy. Living out his retirement years in the same place he learned to walk was simply not allowed. “With caramel. And sprinkles.”

--

Pascal patted around the duvet until he found a shoulder and gave it a gentle shake. Tabarnak, Logan was forbidden from mixing drinks for anyone ever again. Those margaritas were the devil’s work. He was going to put that boy back in the basement until he took a bartending class.

“Celeste.” He kissed the space behind her ear. “Hey. Hey.”

She took a deep breath, as if dragging herself awake, then gave a sudden flinch.

“Shh, shh, c’est moi,” he assured her, drawing a loose piece of her hair back over her ear. “Did I scare you?”

A monotone grumble answered.

“I…” It was gone. Pascal blinked, bleary and confused. Their room was warm. He hadn’t heard anything strange. Something about the house…?

“Quoi, Pascal?” Celeste mumbled.

He scratched the stubbly side of his cheek. Wood paneling? A broken cabinet? “I look good in my tool belt, right? You think it looks nice?”

The vague figure of Celeste turned her face into the pillow and exhaled hard. Her shoulder shook. “Ouais, sure.” She was laughing at him. Why was she laughing? Her hand reached back and bumped his elbow. “Very nice. Go to sleep.”

“D’accord. Je t’adore.” He shuffled over to put his head on her pillow. Sleep caught him between one breath and the next.

“Je t’aime,” she whispered in the dark.