Written for DelusionalDoll for the January Monthly One-Shot Exchange

Prompts: Sirius/Remus, AU, Fluff, Soulmates

The Countdown

Remus Lupin used to spend hours watching his arm, his eyes on the counter as it ticked away, the beautiful black calligraphy adding second by second, with the timer slowly working its way up.

Minutes, days, hours.

Days, weeks, years.

Sometimes Remus would just lay in bed at night, watching, transfixed by it all, wondering how the world just knew who his ideal match was. He would attempt to paint a picture in his mind, wondering if his soulmate would be taller or shorter than him.

Would they be male or female? Light or dark haired? Serious or a joker?

Would they be romantic? Want to go out to restaurants, or would they prefer to watch movies indoors with popcorn and cuddling on the sofa?

But every time he imagined his soulmate, they were different. Remus didn't know what to expect.

He just saw how happy his own parents were and saw his life going the same way. A nice house, children (if he was matched with a girl) or adoption, and just being so extremely happy.

...oOo...

These days, Remus barely bothered to watch the counter, waiting for his soulmate to appear. Instead, he used the counter as a timer for when he had been cooking dinner, or timing something.

He hadn't given up hope, as occasionally his gaze would linger on the counter, but he had decided not to be one of the people who obsessed over their counter, knowing it would stop eventually.

He just knew he would deal with it when it happened - when the timer finally stopped. It wasn't as straight forward in Remus' case, so there was a chance that his soulmate wouldn't accept him.

Well, more that his soulmate wouldn't accept his son, Teddy.

Remus knew that soulmates were valued above almost everything else, but in his own eyes, the one he treasured was his young son. Teddy had already been abandoned by his mother (something that seemed to happen in their society), though thankfully his own parents were around to offer support.

Four years on and Remus was now an author of children's books. It had taken him three and a half years to get his first book published, and though he wasn't well known, he enjoyed what he was doing.

He was just retelling the stories that he made up for Teddy, and it helped that he was around to look after Teddy before and after school, able to work around his son.

He made enough to support them both at the very least.

...oOo...

After dropping his four-year-old son at school, Remus headed to a nearby cafe and set his laptop up. It was an old thing, but it was the only laptop he had. He opened up a new word document and started to outline the story he had told Teddy the night before. It was one he had been telling for a couple of years, slowly elaborating on the story until now, when it felt like a whole story.

He had only been working for fifteen minutes when he felt eyes on him. He glanced up and slowly looked around, his eyes briefly lingering on a man standing in the queue with dark hair. Putting it down to his imagination, he glanced down at the laptop again.

Instead, his gaze fell on his arm, where the numbers were shimmering against his skin, though the counter was still going. Remus' heart began racing as he looked up from his arm, searching for whoever was setting that off.

His gaze drifted back to the man with the dark hair again, who had stopped talking to his friend, and was staring at him intensely, sending shivers through Remus. He struggled to look away, but finally his eyes darted back to his arm.

It was still shimmering. That meant that he was seconds from meeting his soulmate. He glanced at the other man, but his arms were folded in front of him, his wrist not on show. He gave Remus a slow smile that made him feel nervous.

This was it - this was the moment that he had anticipated for so long. The moment where he could be so happy with someone, or that person meant for him would run away. The man took the drink that was offered, and, without looking away, he headed Remus' way, another man trailing behind him, confused.

In his excitement, the man failed to spot a bag sticking out from under a table and wasn't prepared for the strap to catch on his foot and trip him up.

A hand grabbed Remus' table as the dark-haired man stopped himself falling, but the damage was done as the coffee went flying over the laptop.

Remus stared at the black screen, not paying attention to the apologies falling from the man's lips. He was glad that he hadn't left anything important on the laptop, due to his fear that one day it would give up, and looked up at the man.

He looked back at his wrist where the counter had stopped and the black writing turning gold and raised an eyebrow.

"It took me twenty-three years, four months, two days, four hours and thirty-four seconds to meet you, and you do it by spilling coffee all over me and breaking my laptop."

"Crap, I hope I didn't ruin anything -"

"It had nothing important to me," Remus muttered.

"Well, I'll get you a new one, I'll replace it. Come on." He grabbed the laptop and thrust it against his friend's chest.

"Sirius, what -"

"Look, James," he said shoving his arm into James' face for a brief second. "Come on."

Remus grabbed his laptop bag and shoved his notebook and pen inside. "You don't have to worry," he began, looking between the pair.

"No, I broke it, so I'll replace it."

The two men walked out, and Remus quickly downed the rest of his hot-chocolate and followed them.

Twenty minutes later, a laptop had been purchased from a nearby shop, much to Remus' argument that the laptop was old, and that the nameless man should just get whatever's cheapest.

The man hadn't listened, not batting an eyelid as he purchased one of the more expensive ones and handed it over.

"I can't accept this," Remus insisted, as they sat in another coffee-shop next door to where the laptop was purchased. "You broke an old, piece of crap. You could have got a second hand one for £50."

"Well, my first impression wasn't good, but I wanted to make a good second impression," the guy said, his friend trying to be discreet at a nearby table but failing miserably.

Remus smiled. "Yet, you still haven't told me your name?"

"I'm Sirius Black," the guy said. His gaze moved to his own timer, and Remus' eyes followed it. "Twenty-three years, eight months," he murmured. "It's about time you showed up! I've been waiting for this moment since I was... fifteen."

"Eleven," James muttered. "You walked over to me, looked at my wrist and swore at me, before doing the same to everyone else in the compartment on the train."

Remus glanced over at the table.

"Well, my parents didn't inform me about the shimmery bit of this," Sirius said, defensively. "I went through a phase of checking people's timers, just in case theirs stopped and mine was being faulty."

Remus couldn't help but grin. "You were checking out other guy's timers when you were eleven?"

"Don't listen to James, he was dropped on his head as a child... a lot. He likes to make things up. So, what's your name?"

"Remus Lupin," Remus said.

"Hey... that name is familiar," James said, pulling his chair over and ignoring the glare from Sirius.

"James, you're gatecrashing our date," he muttered threateningly.

"Why do I know that name?" James asked, ignoring Sirius.

"Uh... do you have a kid?"

James nodded. "Little boy called Harry."

"Well, if Harry likes books -"

"You wrote that book... the one about the friendly wolf called Moony!" James exclaimed, pointing at him. "Harry loves that book!"

"Moony?" Sirius asked, he grinned and leaned forward, hoping to get Remus' attention again. "Interesting that you write books about wolves, 'Remus Lupin'."

"So, you know what I do, what do you do?"

"I'm an artist," Sirius replied. "I like drawing and painting."

"You must be good at it," Remus said, frowning. "If you go around spending money on strangers like this."

Sirius' smile widened. "But you're not a stranger, you're my soulmate."

Remus felt nervous at the smile and thankfully his phone rang, distracting him. He glanced at it, seeing 'school' pop up.

"I'm sorry, this could be important," Remus said, taking the phone.

"Remus Lupin."

"Hi, I'm calling from Hogwarts Primary school about your son."

"Yes. Has something happened?"

"Teddy fell over a short while ago, and so far, we've been unable to calm him down. He's got himself quite worked up and we were wondering if you were able to stop into the school?"

"Of course, I'll be right there," Remus replied. "Thank you, bye."

He hung up and put the phone on the table. "I'm really sorry, but I have to go."

Sirius' smile dropped. "But... we're soulmates. What do we... do we swap numbers? Can I take you out to dinner? When do I meet your parents? How do you feel about adopting a kid together?"

"Moving fast there, aren't you, Padfoot?"

"Well me and Moony are destined to be together, so why not?" Sirius asked. "I mean, I've waited twenty-three years for him and that's a long time."

Remus slid his phone across the table.

...oOo...

'So... are you single?'

'I am. Are you?'

'Yes. It was nice to meet you today, Remus. I'm sorry again about the laptop.'

'It's okay. I still say that you shouldn't have wasted your money.'

'Anything for you! Can I see you on Friday?'

'Yeah sure. I'd like that.'

'Great. Goodnight Remus.'

'Goodnight Sirius.'

Remus put the phone on the bedside table and plugged the charger in. He hoped that 'anything for you' would still apply once Sirius found out about Teddy.

...oOo...

"So... were you excited over meeting a soulmate, or were you never interested in it?" Sirius asked, as they sat down.

He looked nervous this time, and Remus wondered why.

"I... I was excited when I was younger," Remus admitted. "I wondered if you'd be male or female, I wondered what type of things you'd like to do and places you'd like to go. Sometimes I'd wonder what you were doing at that same moment."

"But now?"

"Life," Remus shrugged. "Things change and I'm both excited and terrified of this."

"Terrified?"

Remus nodded. "It's not all straight-forward with me. So... clearly you've been excited over the soulmate concept since you were eleven?"

"Younger. I didn't have a great upbringing, so the thought of there being someone out there that would be perfect for me, that would actually love me sounded like the most amazing thing ever. I must admit that it still does."

"You haven't let life jade you?"

"No," Sirius murmured. "But you have." The words were not unkind and Sirius watched him curiously.

"You want to ask but you don't want to appear nosy," he guessed, after Remus opened his mouth a few times. "My parents weren't nice people. I was born just to carry on the blood-line. My brother was born because they had hoped for a daughter to marry off to another high-class family, no matter whether they were soulmates or not. My parents hated us, I won't talk about it." He rubbed his hand over a scar on his arm absently. "But the good thing was, that when I was eleven they packed me off to boarding school. I only had to return home for six weeks during the holiday. I ran away at seventeen, but I was a mess at the time, I wasn't used to nice parents, and the Potters... they're the nicest. I was so jealous of James for having them as his parents, but after they took me in, they felt like my own."

"When I was nineteen, I had a thing with a girl. She was amazing, beautiful, smart, we could talk for hours. It wasn't love, but it could have been, one day. But she meets her soulmate and she phones me to end it."

"I'm sor -"

"Seven months later, she knocks on my door again," Remus continued. "She says: 'Gareth wants us to have our own family, he doesn't want to raise someone else's child, and I can't expect him to.'. I asked his age. 'Two days. Here's the paperwork for him. His name is Edward, after my father.' With that, she left, and I had no idea. I moved back in with my parents."

There was a long silence as Sirius processed it.

"I think I should have this out in the open now," Remus said. "Because I have a four-year-old son and not all soulmates would want to raise someone else's child. Though his mother would just hand him over so easily, I would never give my son up."

Sirius looked up from the table and met his gaze. "I wouldn't ask you to give your child up," he said, firmly. "I love that you love your son so much that you'd choose him over a soulmate should the situation arise. Is that why you rushed off before?"

"Teddy bumped his head at school and got worked up."

"Well, I knew that I'd be matched with another man, and hoped that one day we'd adopt. I've always wanted to be a dad... I know I'd be better than my own parents, and James has Harry, Harry is about to turn four. Maybe... maybe one day we could all go out? I'll bring Harry - he's my Godson. I'm good with kids."

Remus smiled at Sirius' hopeful look.

"That sounds great. I'd like that," he murmured.

...oOo...

Sirius insisted on walking Remus home. They held hands as they walked, and Remus couldn't stop smiling. The conversation had turned to kids after his confession about being a single father, and he opened up, talking about Teddy and hearing Sirius talk just as eagerly about Harry.

"So, of course I want to do this again," Sirius murmured, turning towards Remus, and stepping closer to him as they arrived at the door.

"Me too," Remus whispered, as lips descended onto his, hands wrapping around his waist and pulling him close. For a minute, the pair were locked into an amazing kiss, thoughts swirling around both of their minds about not stopping, about going further.

"Remus!"

Remus jumped away, turning towards the gate. Standing there was his mother, holding Teddy's hand.

"Mum, but..."

"We went out to get something to eat," Hope said, holding up a bag of shopping. "So... this is your chap, is it?"

"Mum, this is Sirius. Sirius, this is my mum."

Sirius walked over. "Lovely to meet you," he said, taking Hope's hand and placing a kiss on it, before looking down at Teddy.

"Hey Teddy, I'm Sirius. I've heard a lot about you," he said. He turned and smiled softly at Remus. "I'll call you later, alright?"

"Or you could have dinner with us so we can get to know our son's soulmate," Hope offered.

Teddy was looking at him in curiosity, and Sirius looked back at Remus.

"Yeah, if you want to that is," Remus added.

Sirius grinned. "I'd love to," he said.

...oOo...

"So, Pops - how did you and Dad find each other? It's taking me so long to find my soulmate!"

Sirius grinned at the seventeen year old. "We met in a coffee-shop. I saw him from across the room and instantly fell in love, before I noticed my arm shimmering. When I looked back, your dad was staring at his arm in amazement, so I just knew it was him. I headed over and utterly charmed him."

"You tripped and poured coffee all over my laptop," Remus replied.

"In a charming way, of course," Sirius replied, with a wink.

Review Please :)

Thanks to Firefly for betaing this :)

Thanks to Firefly and Raybe for the help!