Characters not mine.

(originally written for a free-for-all challenge at comment_fic. Prompt was the title.)

So there were many, many things that Sirius Black was good at buggering up, and one of them was relationships. If it wasn't James pointing it out, he tended to blow it off with mention of his family or just a flat "I don't care."

This was a little bit different.

It had been almost five months since the Whimping Willow incident. He and Remus were talking again, and that was something, but Prongs and Wormtail had been to the Shrieking Shack four times now without Padfoot along, and they were going to do it again tomorrow night. The wolf remembered who had hurt him, but he had an animal's lumbering understanding about it; and the simple conviction that if Moony hurt Padfoot back than everything would be all right. Sirius was generally willing to risk it, if it would get the anger out, but James wasn't, and he'd threatened to gore any great black dogs that showed up on the grounds on a full moon night.

But for once James didn't get it. Remus was closed up, he'd always been closed up, and Sirius had managed to blow any chance of him opening up as Remus all to hell five months before. And James could take a breather and let the aggression go if he really tried, but not Remus. Remus stored anger up for when he needed it, and sometimes the only safety valve was the wolf. Moony needed to beat Padfoot to a pulp, and then Remus could pretend nothing had ever happened, and Sirius could forget how good he was at buggering things up.

James didn't get it, but as usual when it came to Padfoot-and-Prongs showdowns, James had eventually won.

Which was why he was here, another cold bloody night on the astronomy tower with a class rather than a girl. It had been Remus who had convinced him to take it at the NEWT level, on the theory that Gryffindor's resident insomniac Marauder could spend his night in class at least once a week. Sirius had only agreed because Remus planned to take it, too. He'd skipped the last three, because things were just so bloody stiff and uncomfortable without James about, but the professor had finally caught him out in a broom closet twenty minutes before class and told him to put his shirt on properly and show up.

The plan was to hang in the back as though he had better things on his mind than Uranus and stalk off at the first opportunity.

Lily Evans changed that, by slipping back through the crowd and slapping him upside the head.

"Hey! What was that for?"

"For leaving Remus wondering where you are. Seriously, you two slug it out before you drive Potter mad and he does the same to me."

Sirius rubbed the back of his head. "I was with a girl. He knew that."

Evans slapped him again for good measure. "Once I'll grant. Imbecile."

"Aren't you the good little girl who listens to the lectures anyway?"

"Oh, talk to him, Black. He's right there." She gestured.

Sirius glanced at Remus, who was off to the side as usual and scribbling notes that Sirius hadn't swiped from him in weeks, and back at Evans. He could talk to Remus, or he could get slapped in the back of the head again.

He talked to Remus.

"Hey."

Remus glanced over at him, skittish. "Sirius. You showed up tonight."

Sirius shrugged. "Failure looks bad an Auror applications even in a stupid subject like this," he answered. "And I can just imagine what it would be like to explain to my mother that I managed to fail Astronomy because I was making out with a Muggle-born in a broom closet."

The tip of the quill snapped. "You've been avoiding me."

"You haven't been talking to me." Sirius shrugged. "Evans said we should slug it out."

"Lily has a very simplistic view of male relationships."

"I noticed."

Remus sighed, tucked the broken quill in a pocket of his robe, and reached up to rub his temples. "Sirius, what do you want?"

To go chasing after you in the dark again. To hear you tell me something will never work, and then shove me away from the parchment so you can change the plan. To not hear you and Peter stop laughing because I'm stalking up the steps. To feel your back against mine in the middle of something again.

What he said was "Honestly? For her not to slap me again."

Remus sighed. "You're a bastard, you know that?"

Sirius considered it. ". . . yes?"

For a moment, that seemed to be it for awkward conversations. For a moment.

"I suppose you're staying in again tomorrow night?" Remus asked softly.

"Being gored to death by Prongs would hurt."

More silence. Sirius glanced back at Evans, but she was paying attention to the lecture again. Thank Merlin.

Then Remus spoke again. "Almost summer."

"Don't remind me," Sirius said.

Remus shrugged and leaned against the stone. "Dog star's overhead and getting domininant. You know, if you believe in divination. Probably the brightest star in the sky."

Sirius glanced at him.

Remus sighed. "I'll talk to James."

"Moony?"

Remus quirked an eyebrow, and Sirius broke into a relieved grin. "Been awhile," he managed. "You know, since I really stretched my legs."

Remus smiled back. Shyly, the way he used to in first year, but Sirius caught a glimpse of his teeth in it.

Dog star's not the brightest, Sirius couldn't help but think. Never is. It's the moon. Moony.