Disclaimer: The canon story of Remus Lupin and Sirius Black belongs to J.K. Rowling, as do all other recognisable characters and settings.

Notes/Warnings: My first attempt at Remus/Sirius ('Wolfstar'), as well as my first attempt at writing Marauder's era fan-fiction. I hope I made it work here. I don't pretend to be an expert on this era of the Harry Potter story, however, so I apologise in advance if anything I wrote doesn't match up with canon timelines, events, and so on. M/M, slash, featuring overly enthusiastic matchmaker James. :) The plot makes reference to a few serious events, but it isn't too deep-it's more fluff than anything else.

The First Date

Remus Lupin paced nervously around the sixth-year boys' dormitory. He had already tried and failed to fasten his robes correctly, with his hands shaking the whole time, and he had the peculiar sensation of feeling both too hot and too cold at the same time.

He was used to feeling out of sorts at least once a month, but this felt different somehow.

With his throat starting to feel strangely dry, he reached for the half-full glass on his bedside cabinet and took several gulps of water. He then stopped his pacing for a minute or so in order to look at his reflection in the full-length mirror in the room.

"It's just Sirius," Remus reminded himself firmly, staring at his reflection. "It's just your friend, Sirius. You're only going to Hogsmeade together."

Unfortunately, this reminder that he was about to go to Hogsmeade with 'just Sirius' only served to further heighten Remus's nerves. In fact, the pressure that Remus felt for everything to go well on his first date with Sirius Black was the reason why he felt rather ill in the first place.

Although Remus had considered Sirius to be one of his best friends since first year, and they had shared many experiences and profound moments together, both happy and sad, this didn't change the fact that Sirius was handsome, and confident, and charming, and Remus had never considered himself to be any of those things.

It also didn't change the fact that Sirius definitely appeared to have a lot of experience when it came to romance and going on dates. Almost every girl at school seemed to fancy him, he flirted with half of Hogwarts on a daily basis, and there were countless rumours (mainly started by James) of Sirius snogging girls (and doing more than just snogging) in various broomstick cupboards and dark Hogwarts corridors. Remus was therefore certain that Sirius must have been on lots of dates already, and he probably knew exactly how to behave when out on a date without feeling awkward, and he was probably very good at flirting and making conversation.

Unfortunately, Remus couldn't claim to have anywhere near as much skill in this area. The one and only 'romantic' experience that he had ever had had been a quick snog with a Hufflepuff student in an old classroom back in fourth year (arranged by James, who had always taken a great interest in his best friends' love lives, and he had felt sorry for Remus when he complained about being the only one in the group to have never experienced a first kiss); it was an event which Remus had cut short because he'd realised after a minute or so that he hadn't been enjoying himself at all, and he'd felt no attraction whatsoever to the girl he'd been snogging, as pretty as she had been. It had taken him a little while longer, however, to understand why this had been the case.

As much as he had wanted to go on a date with Sirius for a long time, and however much he had dreamt over the past week that Sirius would ask him to be his boyfriend while they were on their date, he also couldn't help feeling terrified that his inexperience would be very obvious to his friend, or that he would do or say something embarrassing to ruin the date, or do something to put Sirius off from ever asking him out again.

Remus glanced at a list which he had written on a spare bit of parchment. It was a list of possible topics of conversation in case of any awkward silences on his part during the date (Quidditch, Defence Against the Dark Arts classes, the Charms essay that he was working on, the Marauder's adventures on the night of the last full moon…); however, this did nothing to help his nerves.

It had come as something as a shock and a disappointment to Remus to discover that love and romance were not ideas and theories that could simply be learnt from a book, although Merlin knows he had tried. He felt a blush creep to his cheeks as he remembered the librarian's strange stare at him when he had attempted to describe the kind of book that he was searching for the other day in the library.

He therefore wasn't very sure if his list of conversation topics would be of much use, either, but still, he had had to do something, and Remus was used to writing down thoughts and ideas in order to find the best solutions to problems.

As he folded up his list, he let out a hopeless sigh, almost dreading the next few hours and wondering how he had ended up in this predicament...

It had all started a week ago when Remus's Arithmancy class had just ended.

Actually, Remus knew that this wasn't exactly correct. The truth was that it had all started back in first year, when shy, unsure Remus had first met Sirius Black and he had been completely taken by his confidence, his sense of humour and his fearlessness.

It had continued through to fourth year, when Remus had started to notice just how attractive Sirius was, with his perfect hair and smile, although he'd simply believed at the time that he just wanted to be like Sirius; to be that good-looking and witty.

It had then really continued when Remus had suddenly realised towards the end of fourth year that he was hopelessly in love with Sirius Black, a feeling which would later intensify due to his memories of an intense and inexplicable connection with Padfoot during every full-moon transformation.

Remus had spent many months daydreaming about kissing Sirius, as hopeless as he had known that his inappropriate crush on his friend had been. He had even taken to writing Sirius's name, surrounded by illustrations of hearts, on pieces of parchment during History of Magic class (the only class where Remus, studious as he was, really struggled to concentrate). He had only stopped doing this when James had caught him one day, in the middle of a particularly boring lesson. After James had spent the rest of the lesson looking from Remus to Sirius and smirking, Remus had felt extremely nervous that James might say something to Sirius.

However, even though everything that Remus felt about Sirius had started in first year, things had only started to progress after the sixth year Arithmancy class a week ago.

Remus had walked out of the classroom to overhear loud whispers of, "Just ask him, Sirius!" from Peter Pettigrew, and, "It's now or never, Pads!" in the unmistakable voice of James Potter, coming from just around the corner of the corridor.

Next minute, Sirius had appeared from around the corner, looking slightly unsteady on his feet, as though somebody had just pushed him into view.

He had managed to stand up properly, and Remus had been sure that he had actually looked uncharacteristically nervous about something as he started to approach Remus, but then he seemed to regain his composure as he got closer to Remus, who had been standing still, staring at him.

"Moony!" he had exclaimed, grinning at Remus, the way he always did.

Remus had simply stared back at him, trying not to think about how handsome Sirius was, especially with that grin.

"Right, so," Sirius had said after a few seconds of silence, sounding like he had some very important business to take care of, "there's a Hogsmeade visit coming up on Saturday, and I was wondering if you would do me the honour of going with me?"

"I always go to Hogmeade with you," Remus had responded suspiciously. "The four of us go there together all the time..."

In fact, Remus hadn't been able to remember a single time when any of the Marauders had gone to Hogsmeade with anybody else. For all of the girlfriends that James and Sirius were supposed to have, they had always gone to Hogsmeade as a foursome.

"No, er…what I meant was," Sirius had interrupted him, running a hand through his long hair, "I was thinking more like just you and me…you know…getting coffee, bonding, holding hands, whatever…James seems to think that it'd be a good idea..."

Remus was sure that he had actually stopped breathing for a few seconds. Even Sirius had seemed less relaxed than usual.

"You mean, like a…date?" Remus had asked him timidly, uncertainly, already preparing a possible I-was-joking comeback in case Sirius recoiled in horror at the idea of it.

"That's exactly what I mean, Moony," Sirius had grinned, somehow looking relieved that Remus was finally on the same page as him.

Remus had simply continued to stare at him, feeling suspicious all over again. After all, he had reasoned, why would Sirius ever want to go on a date with someone like him?

Remus had always been full of self-doubt and insecurity. Sometimes he wished that he could just change his looks and personality. He knew that the 'werewolf problem' played a big part in this insecurity, but he also suspected that even without his monthly transformations, he would still be shy and self-conscious.

As it was, he had never considered himself to be attractive, or worthy of love, and he had therefore been shocked by Sirius's invitation. Putting aside the fact that Sirius had only previously seemed to be interested in snogging witches, Remus was fairly certain that any wizards that Sirius could ever be attracted to would be nothing like him, and would instead look and act a lot like James: they would be handsome and witty and confident, with a complete disregard for the rules.

Remus and Sirius shared a close bond, a bond that seemed different to Sirius's friendship with James, but Remus just hadn't been able to understand why Sirius would want him like that.

"Is this some kind of prank that you and James have come up with together?" Remus had asked him, his tone sounding almost accusing. He had even used the stern look that always got on James and Sirius's nerves, especially when they were coming up with new ways to break the school rules. They had always told him that they were sure that he would rival Professor McGonagall's sternness one day with that look.

For his part, Sirius had looked genuinely shocked at the accusation.

"It's not a prank, Moony," he'd whispered, his head bowed. "No more pranks between you and me…we agreed, remember?" he had asked, looking momentarily ashamed.

Remus had felt even more uncomfortable at the mention of this agreement that they had made between the two of them. He'd been so angry with Sirius for a long time after his infamous prank involving Severus, an anger which was made worse due to the fact that Sirius just hadn't been able to grasp why Remus might be so furious. He had simply wanted to shrug it all off, claiming (like he always did) that everything would have been all right, even if James hadn't intervened; that nothing bad would ever have happened, that Dumbledore or McGonagall would have saved the day somehow, eventually; that he had only ever intended to give Severus a scare.

Yet Remus had never fully shared Sirius's youthful optimism about things always being all right in the end; given his own past, he had always known and feared that bad things really did happen, that the worst could always happen, no matter how careful anyone was. And so he and Sirius had been stuck in a stand-off of sorts, where Remus had simply ignored him for months on end, furious that Sirius couldn't see things from his point of view, and Sirius had moped around the school looking upset.

Things had come to a head one evening when Remus had found Sirius crying on the dormitory floor, and as he'd wrapped his arms around him (feeling utterly shocked and apprehensive, because he had never seen Sirius cry before), giving into his need to be close to his friend after months of distance between them, and trying to ignore the fact that he was still hopelessly in love with him, in spite of all the anger, the two of them had reached something of an agreement: even though they had both agreed to disagree about the potential dangers of the prank, there could never be any more practical jokes between the two of them; they could never do anything to break the other's trust again.

It was due to this memory of making the agreement, and also the fact that Sirius had looked so sincere as he asked him out, that Remus had just known (as implausible as the idea that Sirius liked him as more than a friend had seemed) that Sirius hadn't asked him to Hogsmeade as a practical joke.

"What do you say, Moony?" Sirius had prompted him, shifting from one foot to the other.

"For Merlin's sake, Moony! Just say yes!" a voice had shouted from around the corner, making them both jump.

Still in shock, Remus had simply nodded and agreed to go to Hogmeade with Sirius, who had smirked and then hurried back to James, who had been hiding around the corner of the corridor throughout the conversation. Remus had heard them whispering frantically to each other as their footsteps faded.

For a couple of days, Remus had felt like he was walking on air. Ignoring James's constant smirks and raised eyebrows, Remus had daydreamed about a perfect date, grinning to himself as he had wondered whether Sirius was going to hold his hand on their date, or maybe even kiss him.

As Saturday had drawn ever nearer, however, Remus had started to feel less elated and more terrified, suddenly feeling very nervous when he was alone with Sirius, and worrying that he wouldn't match up to all of the pretty girls who Sirius had no doubt been on dates with before, as well as panicking about how other students in Hogsmeade would react to seeing them together, and imagining all of the possible ways that he was no doubt going to look like an idiot on their first date; all the ways that he would somehow ruin it.

Remus was brought back to the present at the sound of a soft knock on the dormitory door.

"C-come in!" he shouted, his voice sounding shaky and high-pitched.

The door opened and (to Remus's slight surprise) Lily Evans entered the room. She grinned at Remus and he instantly felt a bit calmer.

Lily had crossed the dormitory in a flash so that she was standing next to him. As though acting on instinct, she fastened Remus's robes correctly for him and even reached up to gently fix his hair.

"Stop worrying," she whispered soothingly. "You'll be fine. It's so obvious that Sirius fancies you."

Remus couldn't help blushing, feeling like her words weren't really helping to settle him down. He was, however, very grateful that Lily had decided to offer this reassurance to him just before his date, especially when his other friends hadn't really been much use in giving him any helpful guidance. Besides, James seemed to have been entirely focused on giving Sirius advice all week, if their hushed conversations in hidden corners of the school (and James's constant whispering in Sirius's ear whenever Remus had walked past them in the corridors) were anything to go by. As much as Remus loved James as a friend, he had always understood that James's loyalty was first and foremost to Sirius.

Remus also wondered how Lily had found out that he was about to go on a date with Sirius. He decided that it was perhaps just down to good intuition, as Lily seemed to know a lot about what people were up to at Hogwarts. Remus was convinced that she would make a good Auror, one day.

Luckily, Lily decided to accompany Remus as he headed downstairs to the Entrance Hall (where he and Sirius had agreed to meet), whispering words of comfort the whole time. As they approached the marble staircase leading to the Entrance Hall, she even gently squeezed his hand, silently offering last-minute reassurance.

Remus could only wish that James had the opportunity to experience this same closeness with Lily, or that one day, Lily would finally see that James really wasn't all that bad, aside from a few interesting 'personality quirks'.

Lily discreetly excused herself at the top of the staircase, joining a few of her friends and leaving Remus to meet Sirius on his own.

Although Remus walked up and down Hogwarts staircases on a daily basis, this time, he really had to put an effort into not tripping over. His hand trembled and he held onto the banister tightly.

Sirius was waiting for Remus at the foot of the marble staircase, looking calm and cool and extremely handsome, as always. He had his usual look about him that seemed to suggest that he'd put minimal effort or thought into getting ready, but still looked stunning anyway.

He grinned and winked at Remus as he approached, who suddenly felt his heart beating at an alarming rate, and his throat felt dry again.

Out of the corner of eye, Remus could see James grinning at the two of them.

As Remus got closer, Sirius (to Remus's surprise) held out a single red rose to him. As delighted as Remus was by the romantic gesture, he also couldn't help the embarrassing blush that seemed to spread all the way across his face and down his neck, especially when James suddenly shouted out, "About bloody time!" very loudly from the middle of the crowded Entrance Hall, apparently so overcome with enthusiasm at the idea of his two friends finally going on a date together that he was unable to refrain from shouting something out about it.

"Mr. Potter!" Professor McGonagall exclaimed in a tone of disapproval at James's outburst, while Sirius grinned at Remus and Remus sort of grinned back at him, which momentarily seemed to break some of the tension on Remus's part.

"I…er...think it's time to head to Hogsmeade," Remus managed to mumble as he caught sight of Professor McGonagall trying to chase after James to shout at him some more, while James attempted to edge away from her in the crowd of students.

Sirius nodded, and as Remus tucked the rose into the pocket of his robes, the two of them headed out of the Entrance Hall and into the grounds in silence.

From what he could make out from a few furtive glances, Sirius seemed to be perfectly content with the silence as they headed to Hogsmeade, as he was walking with a huge grin on his face, almost like he was trying very hard not to laugh about something (and Remus had a feeling that that 'something' was probably him), but Remus couldn't help feeling worried about the lack of conversation, as he thought that perhaps he should be saying something cool or funny to break the silence, even though he had no clue what to say.

He must have been thinking too hard, because he suddenly tripped over his robes and stumbled, which he had never done on the way to Hogsmeade before, and Sirius grabbed him just in time before he fell flat on his face. He started blushing all over again as Sirius helped him to his feet, feeling mortified that he'd just done something so embarrassing at the beginning of their date.

"Come here, Moony," Sirius grinned at him, and he took hold of Remus's hand firmly, as though Remus needed someone to guide him in order to prevent him from falling over like an idiot all over again.

After a few seconds however, Remus remembered that this was exactly what he had wanted-for Sirius to hold his hand on their date-and he realised that it actually felt rather nice, to have Sirius's hand in his. Yet this feeling of joy didn't last for too long, because Remus thought all over again about how he was so busy holding Sirius's hand that he still hadn't come up with anything interesting to talk about. He couldn't seem to recall any of the possible topics of conversation on his list.

The two of them were distracted when they caught sight of Lily approaching James and Peter, a few feet ahead of them. After watching Peter grin encouragingly at Remus, Lily patted Peter affectionately on the shoulder and Remus could hear her telling him: "It was very kind of you, to encourage your friends to admit their feelings for one another." Peter was apparently happy to accept all of the credit, even though Remus wasn't really sure that he'd done much to help.

"Well, I helped, too, you know!" James spluttered indignantly, from where he was standing next to Peter. He held out his arms hopefully for some kind of affection from Lily, but she simply smiled, rolled her eyes at James and carried on walking past him and Peter, while James complained loudly to Peter about how difficult it was to understand girls.

Remus felt a bit sorry for James, but that didn't stop him from sharing another grin with Sirius. After a few seconds of staring however, Remus blushed and looked away, feeling too nervous to look Sirius in the eye for too long.

When they finally arrived in Hogsmeade, Remus still couldn't think of anything to say, but (like always) Sirius was happy to do enough talking for the two of them, as he put an arm around Remus's shoulder and pointed out various shops and the products on display, as though Remus had never seen them before. As he talked, his hand gradually slipped lower and lower down Remus's back, until suddenly, his hand was right on Remus's arse…

"Sirius!" Remus spluttered, so taken aback that he ended up sounding a lot more indignant than he actually felt.

He couldn't help feeling ashamed about acting like such a prude, especially when deep down, he sort of really wanted Sirius to touch him; he wanted Sirius's hands all over him-he'd even had many embarrassing dreams about it over the past year or so.

Anyway, he was certain that Sirius was used to going a lot further than just holding hands on his other dates, and he didn't want to seem clueless in comparison.

However, Sirius didn't push the issue any further. He simply grinned and shrugged apologetically as he moved his hand back up onto Remus's back, but not before they both heard a loud wolf-whistle from James as he walked past the two of them.

Feeling mortified, Remus had to close his eyes and count to ten while he tried to regain some semblance of composure.

First, Sirius took Remus to Honeydukes, where he insisted upon buying lots of chocolate for him. Remus was sure that he grinned like a prat the whole time that Sirius was paying for the chocolate.

The moment was only ruined slightly when Sirius whispered, "You look nice today, Moony," as he brushed a stray strand of hair out of Remus's eyes, and Remus somehow managed to drop several chocolates on the floor in his embarrassment.

Eventually, Sirius suggested getting a coffee, and when Remus agreed, he led them into Madam Puddifoot's Tea Shop, with Remus feeling even more anxious as he took in the steamed up windows and the sight of couples all around him, holding hands across their tables.

Although Remus had always thought that the Tea Shop was rather nice (a thought which he had also always kept private out of a reluctance to face months of teasing from James), he was quite surprised that Sirius had chosen to come here, especially when Sirius and James usually chose to drink at the Three Broomsticks on the Marauder's usual visits to Hogsmeade. Remus couldn't help wondering if Sirius had chosen the Tea Shop this time because he had known that Remus would secretly like to come here for their date, and this thought made Remus grin a bit.

He abruptly stopped grinning however, when they headed to a free table by the window and Remus somehow managed to trip over the leg of the chair, hurriedly grabbing onto the table to steady himself.

When he had finally managed to sit down, he realised that Sirius was smirking at him, although there was definitely an affectionate look in his eyes, too.

Remus only wished that he had been on a few more dates already, because maybe then he wouldn't be awkwardly staring back at Sirius, completely overcome by that affectionate look.

While Sirius ordered coffee (and a cup of tea for Remus) and cake, flirting with the waitress the whole time, Remus had to silently remind himself that Sirius was his friend first and foremost, that he was around Sirius every day (in human form, and in werewolf form once a month, too), and that the two of them always found things to talk about, sometimes even talking in whispers late into the night when Sirius climbed into Remus's bed after a particularly hard day, or a particularly nasty letter from his family, and it therefore shouldn't be so difficult to find something to talk about with him.

"So…er…Quidditch," Remus mumbled almost incoherently, remembering one of the topics on his list as soon as the waitress had walked away from their table and Sirius had grinned at him again. As he spoke, he felt like a complete idiot.

"What about Quidditch, Remy?" Sirius asked him with a raised eyebrow, looking more handsome than ever (in Remus's opinion, anyway).

"Er…the Quidditch…the match…James… the Seeker…" Remus managed to reply breathlessly, wondering why Sirius hadn't given up on the date already.

Sirius had apparently taken pity on him, because he grinned and said, "Oh, yeah, the last match against Slytherin-that prat of a referee was so biased!"

With that, some of the awkwardness seemed to ease as Remus let Sirius take the lead in a detailed discussion about the match and Gryffindor's chances of winning the Quidditch Cup.

The discussion went on after their food and drink had arrived and Remus was tucking into his chocolate cake. However, the conversation was abruptly cut off when Sirius attempted to reach for Remus's hand across the table (apparently trying to copy all of the other couples in the Tea Shop) and Remus, caught by surprise, started coughing and spluttering.

After he had regained his composure, Remus tried to take the focus off his most recent embarrassing behaviour by talking about their latest essays and a few of the books that he had just finished reading.

Sirius rolled his eyes, the way he always did when Remus started going on about books, but he also grinned and indulged Remus in his discussion. Remus couldn't help worrying that he sounded too much like a know-it-all, but then he had to remind himself that Sirius already knew that he was a know-it-all (and even called him a know-it-all on a weekly basis), so it didn't really matter if he went on about books now.

As he was talking, Remus was certain that he caught a flash of jet-black hair out of the corner of his eye. He turned to look out of the window, and through the steamed up glass he could just make out James, standing there watching the two of them with both of his thumbs up and a huge grin on his face.

While Remus blushed, Sirius smirked and used a rude hand gesture aimed at James that would have resulted in Professor McGonagall taking fifty points from Gryffindor, if she'd seen him do it, which only caused James to grin even harder at them.

It took a stern glare from Remus to finally get James to go away. Remus started muttering something about James being a prat, but Sirius simply laughed and said, "Drink your tea, Moony, it's getting cold."

Just as Remus was about to take a sip of his tea, he felt Sirius's foot brush against his under the table, and to his utter mortification, he managed to spill half of his tea.

Although Sirius laughed and told him not to worry about it while he cast a quick cleaning charm, Remus actually felt like he wanted to cry. He was sure that he had already made a mess of their date, and that Sirius would never want to take him out on a date again. Perhaps Sirius wouldn't even want to be friends with him anymore, although Remus wasn't sure how he would cope if this happened.

It seemed like Sirius was about to start talking about another topic, but Remus quickly cut him off when an idea suddenly came into his head. "Sirius?" he asked him cautiously. "W-what's the worst date that you've ever been on? Apart from this one," he added under his breath.

He'd decided to ask the question just to get a general idea of what this particular date was going to be compared to, on Sirius's part, later on when Sirius would no doubt be analysing the date with James, because Sirius must have already been on so many other dates, and surely there had been one, at one point, that had been worse than this one? One girl who had been so nervous and so awkward that Remus would look 'cooler' when compared to her? Or one girl who had been so rude or so insulting or so clueless that Sirius's date with Remus wouldn't look so bad in comparison?

For some reason, Sirius had gone very quiet. He was even looking down at the floor, as though it was suddenly too difficult for him to look Remus in the eye. "I wouldn't know," he muttered in barely more than a whisper.

"What do you mean?" Remus asked him, confused.

"I wouldn't know," Sirius repeated, now going red, causing Remus to lean forward in his seat and stare in fascination. Sirius never blushed.

"You wouldn't know what?" Remus asked him patiently, sensing that Sirius was nervous about something and therefore trying to sound calm and soothing.

"I've never been on a date before, all right?" Sirius mumbled, still looking at the floor.

Remus felt his eyes widen in shock. "B-but, what about all those girls?" he asked in disbelief.

"Which girls, Moony?" Sirius asked, his brow furrowed in confusion.

"All the girls you always flirt with? All those rumours abo-"

"Come on, Remy, you know how James likes to exaggerate," Sirius replied, finally managing to laugh a bit.

Remus still couldn't believe what he was hearing.

But you're so handsome! he really wanted to shout out, although he wasn't sure if that would go down very well with all of the other customers at Madam Puddifoot's. Who wouldn't want to go out on a date with you?

"Nothing's ever happened between you and any of the girls that you flirt with?" he settled on saying instead.

"Nope."

"You haven't even kiss-"

"No, Remus," Sirius interrupted him quickly.

"Not once?" Remus couldn't help going on, still not quite able to believe it.

"No, Remus," Sirius repeated, still looking a bit embarrassed as he rolled his eyes.

"But…why not, Sirius?" Remus couldn't help asking, his curiosity taking over his sense of shock. When he thought about it, Sirius had been rather quiet on this date; or a lot quieter than usual, at least, when he hadn't been resorting to over-the-top gestures. Perhaps it really was true that this was Sirius's first date, too, and maybe he had been just as nervous as Remus all along.

"Just wanted it to be with you, I suppose, Moony," Sirius muttered, looking more vulnerable than ever. "Never wanted anyone else like that..."

At his words, Remus suddenly felt the inner wolf that he always tried to keep hidden and repressed pushing itself to the forefront of his mind. He tried to push it back, ignore it, but it was very difficult, especially when Sirius was looking at him like that. The inner wolf was currently feeling strong, possessive...dominant almost. It knew now that Padfoot had never been with anyone else; it was working out that Padfoot was waiting for him, Moony, to lay his claim, and he wanted to have Padfoot all to himself; to mark, to posses…

Remus started going red all over again, especially when Sirius looked intently at him from across the table, like he could sense something of the wolf about Remus right now.

"It really seemed like you'd been on dates before," Remus managed to mutter, more to keep the normal, human conversation going than anything else.

"Well, it doesn't hurt to flirt sometimes," Sirius shrugged, eating a piece of the cake that the waitress had given to him for free. "And…er…I took a bit of advice from James," he grinned, looking sheepish.

"You accepted advice about your first date from James?" Remus laughed, feeling a lot less awkward now that he knew for sure that this was the first date for Sirius, too. The thought that he was Sirius's first date almost made him feel giddy. "James, who's been unsuccessfully trying to woo Lily Evans for the past six years?"

Sirius laughed at Remus's comment. "Well, yeah," he shrugged. "He seemed to know what he was talking about. He got me to ask you out in the first place, after all. He said something about you writing my name next to 'lots of pretty hearts'…."

Remus made a silent vow to get revenge on James at some point over the next week for revealing this embarrassing secret to Sirius.

"Anyway, he said that you'd want me to be really confident on the date, touch you a lot and stuff, you know...he said that wizards would like that sort of thing, and he said that you'd already snogged loads of girls in broom cupboards since fourth year, so I'd have to be as good as them at everything…."

Remus almost choked on his tea all over again in his surprise. "Yeah…well….er...as you said yourself, James likes to exaggerate," he mumbled, hoping that Sirius would get the hint without him having to spell it out that their friend hadn't exactly been telling the truth about Remus's experience with girls. "Anyway," he added, "even though I might not have made it obvious, I do like it when you touch me…"

"Yeah?" Sirius asked with a smirk, looking very pleased with himself (and much more like his confident, arrogant self) as Remus blushed bright red.

"Yes," Remus replied, taking a more dignified sip of his tea. "But I don't want you to feel like you have to do that, to impress me or anything, or to look like you've done all of that before..."

"It's really no bother, Moony," Sirius told him with a wink. "Anyway, the rose and the chocolates were entirely my idea..."

As they left Madam Puddifoot's, Remus walked next to Sirius with a new-found confidence. Perhaps it was the knowledge that Sirius was just as inexperienced as he was when it came to going on dates, and he therefore wasn't going to be comparing him negatively to any previous partners; or the realisation that Sirius wanted him just as much as he wanted Sirius; or perhaps it was due to the lingering presence of the inner wolf, who had apparently settled into Remus's thoughts for the time being and seemed to be growling a bit in Remus's mind; whatever it was, Remus didn't feel as nervous about tripping over or finding things to talk about anymore.

He had a feeling that Sirius knew that something had changed, because he kept shooting Remus furtive glances, looking like he wanted to ask him about what he was thinking.

Remus was even brave enough to lean into Sirius's neck and place a gentle kiss to the smooth skin as they walked through Hogsmeade with their arms around each other, no longer caring about what anybody else thought...although he didn't think that the obnoxious growling and howling noises that James made as he walked past them were really necessary.

"Let's head back to the castle," Remus whispered, throwing one last glare at James from over his shoulder.

When they were back in the Hogwarts grounds, Sirius suddenly transformed into Padfoot.

Remus cast a few nervous glances around him, feeling apprehensive that somebody might have seen the transformation. He wanted to warn Sirius about being more careful, but Padfoot was staring at him so intently, like he needed to be in dog form right now to fully understand Remus's thought process. Remus had always felt as though Padfoot could somehow read his mind and anticipate his every action on the nights of the full moon, like there was a deep connection between the two of them, and this connection seemed to be working to Padfoot's advantage at the moment.

"You know, Moonykins," Sirius smirked as soon as he had transformed back (using the latest annoying nickname that he had come up with over the past year or so), "if you want to do your 'wolf thing' and get all possessive with me, then I'd be all right with it, you know...more than all right, actually…"

Remus thought that perhaps he should say something about how Sirius really shouldn't be encouraging the 'inner wolf' right now, but instead he settled on raising his eyebrows at Sirius and grabbing Sirius's hand, pulling him insistently towards the castle.

Remus might have thought earlier on that their date would end with an innocent stroll around Hogwarts, but instead, the two of them ended up back in their dormitory.

"S-sirius?" Remus asked nervously, the second the door was shut. "Can I kiss you?" Even though he had previously been unsure about how far he would be brave enough to go on the first date, he suddenly felt the urge to be as close to Sirius as possible, to get his lips on his.

"You don't have to ask permission, Moony," Sirius smirked at him. "But yeah, you can, if you want," he added hastily when he seemed to realise that Remus really was waiting for Sirius to agree.

They moved closer to each other, getting into each other's space as Remus felt his heart pounding. He could smell chocolate and cake and also the vague scent of dog and everything else that he liked, and Remus found the scent addictive. He leaned forward slowly, feeling light-headed.

The kiss started off slow, hesitant, just a brush of their lips, but after a few seconds, it quickly deepened. Remus had been waiting for so long for this, and he'd believed for so long that he was never going to get a kiss like this that his nerves and lack of experience were suddenly the last things on his mind.

Before their date, Remus had thought that perhaps it would be Sirius taking the lead with any snogging that would go on, but as it turned out, Remus found some sort of inner dominant side as he wrapped his arms firmly around Sirius and deepened their kiss. Sirius moaned softly, willingly parting his lips to give Remus better access, which only spurred Remus on.

There was nothing awkward or uncomfortable about it, now that nobody was watching. Kissing Sirius felt natural, like a mere extension of their deep friendship. It was as though Remus had been kissing Sirius like this all along; as though he should have been kissing Sirius like this all along.

They ended up stumbling backwards onto Remus's bed, with Remus initially taking the lead and climbing on top of Sirius. He tangled a hand into Sirius's perfect hair, and Sirius ran his hands up and down Remus's back, his hands going lower and lower every time. The touches now felt a lot less awkward and less fear-inducing for Remus, now that they were alone, now that he knew that Sirius hadn't been doing this with countless pretty witches all along. He had to reassure Sirius a few times that he was enjoying himself, that what they were doing felt good, as well as asking him for more.

Sirius gave as good as he got, though, occasionally flipping them over so that he could take the lead for a little while.

"Are you sure that you've never done this before?" Remus asked as Sirius kissed his neck.

"Very sure, Moony," Sirius replied. "Are you sure that you haven't? You're quite good at it..."

"Not like this..." he answered, before Sirius kissed behind his ear and Remus forgot what they were talking about.

He kissed Sirius on the lips again, realising that although he was rather useless at going on dates, and also awkward and nervous when it came to romantic gestures in public, this, right here, right now, was what he was good at. Or perhaps he was just good at it when it was with Sirius.

Their robes ended up in a heap on the floor by the bed, even though it did take some coaxing from Sirius to get Remus to remove any items of clothing at all, what with him being so self-conscious about his looks, and then Remus climbed back onto Sirius's lap and got to work on hesitantly unbuttoning Sirius's shirt, feeling amazed that he was doing any of this on a first date.

"That shirt was a very expensive gift from my family, Remus," Sirius informed him with a raised eyebrow.

"Oh, right, sorry," Remus blushed, hastily trying to button the shirt back up.

"No, what I mean is," Sirius quickly grabbed Remus's hands, preventing him from doing the shirt up any further, "you should stop being so careful, unbuttoning it all slowly like that. Rip it off if you have to, destroy it…" he smirked.

That smirk had been Remus's downfall so many times in the past, and now was no exception.

At his words, Remus heard the inner wolf growling all over again as he practically tore the shirt to bits, taking in the sight of Sirius's bare torso.

"Bite me, Moony," Sirius suddenly whispered, looking right into Remus's eyes and smirking.

Remus hesitated for a few seconds, desperately wanting to plead with Sirius not to encourage the wolf right now, not to provoke it, the way he always did just before every full moon. But he knew that it would be pointless; he knew that Padfoot liked the wolf; he knew that he embraced and encouraged this part of Remus's personality. Remus wasn't sure if this was a blessing or a curse.

Besides, Sirius had always been attracted to anything that was risky or dangerous, and Remus was attracted to Sirius, so perhaps he was just as reckless.

He gave in to temptation and put his teeth on Sirius's skin, trying to be as gentle as possible but also really wanting to leave some kind of mark, so that other Hogwarts students would see it and know that Sirius Black was his.

"Been waiting, so long…" Sirius groaned, almost incoherently.

Remus wanted to say something deep and romantic to agree, or maybe even cry a bit about how he had never really thought that he could have this with Sirius, never really thought that he deserved happiness like this; but in the end he settled for whispering, "Padfoot," into Sirius's skin between bites and kisses...

"Eveniiing…"

A smug, arrogant voice suddenly interrupted their snogging and groping session.

Remus froze and slowly looked up to see James Potter standing in the dormitory, right by Remus's bed, and smirking at the two of them without any hint of embarrassment. In fact, he looked rather pleased with himself.

Remus went bright red, feeling absolutely mortified as he desperately tried to cover himself and Sirius up. He had been so caught up in kissing and 'biting' Sirius that he hadn't even heard James come in to the room.

There was a faint pink tinge to Sirius's cheeks, but he was also grinning.

To Remus's horror, James didn't make his excuses and leave. Instead, he simply went and sat on his own bed, still grinning to himself. He started reading one of his Quidditch magazines, apparently perfectly happy to stay in the room.

Sirius simply shrugged and tried to kiss Remus again, who was still on top of Sirius, and Remus couldn't help wondering just how much Sirius shared with James, given that he seemed to be very comfortable to just carry on with what they were doing with James sitting in the room.

"Sirius!" Remus spluttered, indignantly, his voice sounding very high-pitched as he glared pointedly from Sirius to James.

Finally, Sirius let out a sigh. "James, get out," he told his best friend.

James sighed in return and walked out of the room, raising his eyebrows at them as he left and making his annoying howling noises all the way down the stairs.

"Now, where were we?" Sirius asked a still-blushing Remus with yet another smirk.

What must have been a few hours later, Remus woke up in the darkness of the dormitory from what had been the best nap that he had had in months (well, aside from the fact that he had had a very bizarre and slightly disturbing dream in which both James and Lily had stood over his bed while he tried to kiss Sirius).

It took a few minutes before he realised that the warm, comfortable weight lying across him, nuzzling at his neck, was Sirius, and for the memories of the afternoon and the evening to come flooding back to him.

Remus might have blushed a bit as the memories of the more awkward parts of the date came back to him, but he also couldn't help smiling to himself as he remembered Sirius, half-naked on Remus's bed and telling Remus to bite him.

In spite of all of his insecurities and all of the issues at Hogwarts that he had already faced, Remus currently felt like the luckiest student at school.

Apparently sensing that Remus was awake, Sirius's eyes fluttered open. He caught sight of Remus and grinned, wrapping his arms around him more tightly. Remus decided that he could definitely get used to seeing Sirius like this.

"Taking you out on a date again soon, Moony," Sirius mumbled sleepily into Remus's neck.

"I'd like that," Remus replied nervously. Then, feeling awkward again, he couldn't help muttering, "I was worried that you wouldn't want to go on another date. I thought I'd made a prat out of myself…"

"I don't care how many times you make a prat out of yourself," Sirius replied, his eyes closed. "Don't care how awkward you are, just want you...still want to take you out on dates…can both just be prats together," he yawned.

Remus smiled, feeling immensely relieved.

"Ah, young love!" a voice called out sarcastically from across the room.

"Shut up, James!" Remus and Sirius shouted out at the same time, although they both couldn't help grinning, too.

As he drifted back off to sleep, holding Sirius in his arms, Remus decided that in spite of everything, he had just had the best first date that anyone could ask for. He also wondered if he should perhaps send James some sort of thank you present.