Mile High

Posted originally on the Archive of Our Own at http://archiveofourown.org/works/38027947.

Rating: Teen And Up Audiences

Archive Warning: No Archive Warnings Apply
Category: F/M, M/M
Fandom: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Relationship: Sirius Black/Remus Lupin, James Potter/Lily Evans Potter
Character: Remus Lupin, Lily Evans Potter, Sirius Black, James Potter, Mary
Macdonald
Additional Tags: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - Non-Magical,
Modern Marauders (Harry Potter), POV Remus Lupin, Disabled Remus
Lupin, Strangers to Lovers, Airplanes, Airports, Meet-Cute, Marauders
Language: English
Collections: best wolfstar, moony padfoot wormtail and prongs :)
Stats: Published: 2022-03-28 Completed: 2023-04-14 Words: 22,317
Chapters: 5/5

Mile High
by quidditery

Summary

Remus and Lily run into two handsome strangers in the TSA line. Then again at the gate.
Then for a third time on the plane.

Twice is a coincidence. Three times might be the start of something.

 Gate 24
Chapter Notes

i've had this in my head since september and i finally put pen to paper, so to speak.

“Lily!” Remus calls as he catches up to his best friend. “What are you, going for a new land speed
record?”

“Move faster!”

She has somehow remained twenty paces ahead of him since they got out of the taxi, even despite
the eleven inches of height he has on her. And the duffle bag slung over her shoulder, which looks
heavy enough to topple her over.

“You have a promising career in speed walking ahead of you.”

“Would love it if you would stop making jokes and hurry your ass up,” she drawls as she reaches
the airport door and flings it open with a flourish.

Remus barely has time to react, putting out his free hand to catch the door before it swings shut in
his face, and then jogging after Lily, who is somehow already fifty feet in front of him again.

“Would be a bit easier to hurry if you’d stop dropping doors in my face,” Remus says irritably as
he catches up to her, adjusting the strap of his own duffle bag where it’s slung over his shoulder.

“Oh, please." Lily scans an overhead sign with a bunch of letters and numbers and arrows as they
pass under it, but she doesn't slow down. “I know you can move faster than that.”

“This isn’t The Fast and the Furious,” he quips.

“This isn’t The Tortoise and the Hare,” she retorts.

“Speed Racer.”

“Grandma.”

It’s true, really; he can move faster than he was in the parking lot, he’s just not too keen to test his
limits. He is about to be folded into an airplane seat for eight hours, which he already knows is
going to be hell for his knee.

But Lily wouldn’t move faster than she thought he could handle, and he would tell her if there was
a real problem.

He keeps pace with her as she scurries down the hall, past the check-in stations and baggage check
with a determined look on their face. They both checked in for their flight in the cab to the airport,
and neither of them are checking bags. Everything they need for their trip has been squeezed into
their two--unreasonably heavy, Remus now thinks--duffle bags.

And good thing, too, because despite their best laid plans, they have somehow managed to be late
to their flight. Or, at least, Lily’s version of late.

The plan had been to get here much earlier, but Remus’s car broke down a few blocks away from
Lily’s house, and then they had to wait for a cab, and then they somehow got saddled with the one
cab driver in New York City who drives fifteen miles an hour under the speed limit. They still have
an hour before the plane starts boarding, which Remus secretly thinks is sufficient, but he can
practically see the panic radiating off of Lily in waves.

That panic visibly increases when they reach the security line, which is longer than any line should
ever be.

“You’ve got to be fucking kidding me,” she exclaims, verbalizing Remus’s exact thoughts.

“Nothing we can do about it now,” Remus says dejectedly, a dull ache beginning to pound in his
knee. “Come on, let’s find the end of the line.”

Lily shoots him a glare, but he knows she’s more glaring with him than at him.

They follow the line down the hall and through two sets of automatic doors, Lily huffing and
puffing and grumbling and Remus pretending she’s not externalizing every one of his internal
thoughts, until they finally reach the end. Remus puts down his carry-on with a sigh.

“What gate are we?” Lily asks for the fiftieth time.

“Twenty-four,” Remus responds immediately.

“Are you sure?”

“Yes.”

“You didn’t even check the tickets.”

“You’ve asked me fifty times, I’m pretty sure I remember--”

“Just check the ticket, Remus.”

Remus sighs again and bends down to fish the boarding passes out of his bag, then hands them
over to her.

“Here,” he says, hiking the bag over his shoulder again as they move forward in line a few paces.
“Now you can stop asking me what our gate is.”

Lily studies them. “Gate twenty-four,” she says with a nod.

“That’s what I said.”

“I know, I was just confirming.”

The person in front of them in line, a guy wearing a leather jacket, snickers and elbows the guy
standing next to him.

“She sounds like you,” Leather Jacket Guy mutters.

His companion smiles and pushes his glasses up his nose. “Oh, come on, I’m not that bad.” He
glances back at Lily, catches her scowl, and the smile drops from his face. “Sorry,” he says, his
eyes darting between Lily, Remus, and Leather Jacket Guy, who now looks even more amused. “I
didn’t mean--”

“Save it,” Lily interrupts. “I’m not in the mood. And I don’t know you, so I don’t really care.”

“Well, that’s easy enough to change.” The smile returns to the guy’s face, and he shifts his
briefcase to his left hand to extend his right for a handshake. “I’m James.”

Lily eyes James’s hand suspiciously, then sticks her nose in her air. “No thanks,” she says. “I’m
good.”

Leather Jacket Guy--who Remus can’t help but find extremely attractive--shoots Remus a smirk,
like they’re in on some kind of joke together. Remus smirks back.

James’s smile only grows. He lowers his hand and sticks it casually into his pocket. “Fair enough,”
he says. “Stranger danger and all.”

“And we’re never going to see each other again,” Lily adds, “so I don’t think pretending to care
about each other’s names is necessary.” James shrugs, still smiling, and turns to Remus.

“How about you?” he asks.

Remus pulls his gaze away from Leather Jacket Guy and offers James his hand. “Remus.”

Lily scoffs in betrayal and Leather Jacket Guy laughs as James gives Remus’s hand an enthusiastic
shake.

“Great to meet you both,” he says, his eyes darting to Lily.

“You too,” Remus says, then turns to Leather Jacket Guy. “And, sorry, you are…?”

“Sirius.” Leather Jacket Guy-- Sirius-- also offers his hand, which Remus takes, suddenly nervous
about the firmness of his handshake, for some reason. But Sirius doesn’t seem to notice or care
how good Remus is at shaking hands, grabbing onto the strap of the backpack slung over one
shoulder and looking between Remus and Lily with that smirk. “So where are you two headed?”

“Well,” Remus starts, “our friends Marl--”

“We have to go,” Lily interrupts, grabbing firmly onto Remus’s elbow. She begins tugging him
towards a newly-formed, shorter line headed by a grumpy looking TSA officer with a white beard.

“Oh, sorry,” Remus says distractedly, hiking his bag over his shoulder just in time for Lily to start
dragging him away. “I’m--it was--”

“Yeah,” Sirius says with a little wave. “You too.”

Once they’re in the other line, Remus nudges Lily on the shoulder. “So what was that about?”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Lily says a bit too firmly, studying her boarding pass
again.

“They seemed nice.”

Lily scoffs and looks up to give Remus an incredulous look. “They insulted me,” she says.

“Not really,” Remus disagrees. Lily rolls her eyes.

“You just thought that guy in the leather jacket was cute.”

Remus shrugs with a wry smile. “They were both cute. Sue me.”

Lily rolls her eyes again, but her cheeks are turning a bit red. “Not that cute,” she mutters.

“Is that what this is about?” Remus laughs. “You thought that James guy was cute, and he hurt
your feelings by pointing out how bad of a mood you’re in--”

“I’m not in a bad mood,” Lily snaps.

“Ok, fine.” Remus puts his hands up in surrender. “You’re not in a bad mood. You’re always this
snippy and--”

“I’m not snippy,” Lily snips.

“Lily,” Remus says patiently. “They were just trying to be friends. I really don’t think he meant
anything by it.”

“When I’m trying to be friends with someone,” Lily says haughtily, “I don’t typically start off by
insulting them.”

“He wasn’t--” Remus tries, but Lily cuts him off with a sigh.

“It doesn’t matter, though, does it?” she asks. “Because like I said, it’s not like we’re going to see
him again.”

He sighs. “Yeah, I guess.”

They wait in line for what feels like forever, but Remus doesn’t point out that they probably would
have been better off staying in the other line, even when a woman holds them up for fifteen
minutes by making a loud and tearful scene about not being allowed to bring a big bottle of hand
lotion through security. He doesn’t think it would be received particularly well at the moment.

After they’ve gone through the scanner, while they’re waiting for their shoes and bags to come
through the X-Ray machine, Lily sighs.

“I’m not that bad,” she says quietly. “Am I?” She looks up at Remus. “I’m not, right?”

Remus picks his shoes up off the conveyor belt and puts them on. “Nah,” he says. “I mean, you
run a tight ship, and you haven’t exactly been warm and fuzzy since we--”

“I just don’t want to miss our flight!” she exclaims, her cheeks turning slightly pink again as they
pick up their bags and head off towards their gate.

“I know,” Remus hastens. “No, I know that, and I really don’t mind. You know I love you.” He
nudges her playfully, and her shoulders relax a bit. “But, you know, you just… they probably could
tell that you’re in a bad mood, is all.”

“I’m not,” she insists again, but then her shoulders relax more and she sighs. “Ok, no, you’re night.
I’m in kind of a bad mood.”

“And I really don’t blame you,” Remus says. “I mean, of all the things that could have possibly
gone wrong today--”

“Right?!” Lily looks up at Remus again, a look of almost awestruck exasperation on her face. “I
mean, I knew your car was on its last legs, but…”

“But today, of all days?” Remus finishes for her.

“Exactly!” Lily laughs, and it’s the first time Remus has heard her laugh all day. “And I really
didn’t expect to have to shell out for a cab.”

“I know,” Remus groans. “As if the flight to freaking London wasn’t expensive enough.”

“At least we’re going to make it, though.” Lily points to Gate 24 up ahead, where it looks like
boarding hasn’t even begun, despite the flight being expected to take off in ten minutes.

The gate is packed with people. No one is lined up to board yet, and Remus notes with a twinge of
hopelessness that all the seats seem to be taken. His knee is beginning to bother him, and he was
expecting to be able to sit in a proper chair and stretch his legs out in front of him before being
cooped up in a plane all night. A group of teens or early-twenty-somethings sit on the floor reading
magazines, and Remus considers for a moment whether he should sit on the floor, too.

“We can ask someone to get up,” Lily says quietly, reading Remus’s discomfort. He shakes his
head.

“We both know I’m not going to do that,” he says.

“But I will,” Lily returns, and Remus knows she’s telling the truth; she would have no problem
asking someone to move to give Remus somewhere to sit. And it’s a testament to how
uncomfortable standing is becoming that he even considers it. But after a moment, he shakes his
head again.

“It’s fine. I’ll just get my cane.” He holds out his bag to Lily. “Sorry, would you mind…?”

Lily wordlessly takes the duffle and holds it up so Remus can search through it. He pulls out his
cane and breathes a small sigh as he leans against it, taking most of the pressure off his leg.

“Better?” Lily asks. Remus nods gratefully and takes his bag back, letting his eyes scan over the
crowd again on the off-chance someone might have vacated their seat in the last twenty seconds.

They see each other at the same time.

Remus freezes when he makes eye contact with James, sitting just a few feet away from where he
and Lily are standing. But James doesn’t hesitate. He hops up from his seat and waves wildly at
them, unseating Sirius’s legs from where they were resting on his lap.

“James, what the--” Sirius cuts himself off as he sees what James is looking at, and then he stands
too. “Remus,” he says, smiling.

“Oh, give me a break,” Lily mutters, but Remus barely hears her, because Sirius’s eyes have just
flitted, almost imperceptibly, to Remus’s cane. Sirius mutters something to James and sits back
down, and Remus tries not to be disappointed. James looks at Remus and Lily briefly, then nods to
Sirius and starts walking towards them, a neon orange travel pillow still around his neck.

“Oh, jeez,” Remus says, and Lily gives him a look that says, what do you mean, 'oh jeez,' I thought
you liked them?

Remus raises his eyebrow and taps his cane with his forefinger. I don’t want any weird questions.
Lily nods and squares her shoulders. I’ll handle it.

“Hey,” James says with a huge smile as he approaches. Lily’s shoulders droop a bit as if she wasn’t
expecting him to be so happy to see them and now has to recalibrate. “They just announced that the
flight is delayed, right before you got here. It’ll be another, like, half an hour. Do you want to come
sit with us?”

Lily squares her shoulders again. “We don’t need--”

“Actually,” Remus interrupts, shooting Lily an apologetic look. “It--I would actually really like to
sit down, yes.” Lily looks confused, and Remus doesn't blame her, considering their wordless
conversation a moment ago. So he says, quieter, “A half an hour? That’s a long time for me to be
standing here, Lil.”

Understanding dawns on her face immediately, and she turns to James with a stony look. “You
don’t get to say anything about the cane,” she says, and Remus cringes at her bluntness, but
James’s smile doesn’t waver.

“Course not,” he says, gesturing for them to follow.

When they reach Sirius, he stands up and gestures grandly to the seats. “Saved you a spot,” he
says.

Lily ignores him and plops down in his seat immediately, pulling her bag onto her lap and
unzipping it to root around for her book.

As Remus lowers himself down into James’s seat, he gives the two of them an appreciative, if
strained, smile. “Thanks,” he says, slipping his cane back into his bag. He probably won’t need it
again until they get to London.

“No problem.” Sirius sits down on the ground facing them, legs out in front of him, ankles crossed,
arms braced behind him for support. “Now, if you don’t mind me asking--”

“He does,” Lily says without looking up from her book.

“Lily…” Remus warns.

“Fine.” Lily looks up to glare fiercely at James and Sirius. “I mind, then. You’ll both leave him
alone, or I’ll kill you. And Remus loves me, so he’ll cover for me.”

“Lily,” Remus groans, halfway between grateful and embarrassed.

But Sirius looks unperturbed. And James is looking at Lily like she’s the only person in the room.

“Threatening to murder the people who just offered you their seats?” He tilts his head up to look at
James, who is still standing. “Did you hear that, counselor?”

“What?” James asks dumbly, still looking at Lily. Sirius doesn’t seem to notice.

“I was just going to ask,” Sirius continues, looking slowly back at Remus, “what you’re going to
London for.”

Remus can feel Lily relax next to him, but he doesn’t look away from Sirius’s gray eyes. “Two of
our best friends are getting married. Marlene and Dorcas.”

“And they decided to have a destination wedding,” Lily adds, looking at her book again. “For
whatever fucking reason.”

“Destination weddings are fun, though!” James interjects excitedly. Lily blinks up at him.

“Not when you’re poor,” she says simply, looking him up and down and then eyeing his leather
briefcase. “Not that I would expect you to understand anything about that, Burberry.”

James flushes, but Sirius throws back his head and laughs. “She’s got you there, Potter.”

“Like you have room to talk.” James kicks one of his arms out from under him, but Sirius barely
seems to notice, using it as an excuse to casually lower himself down to his elbows before looking
at Remus again.

“So, a destination wedding,” Sirius says. “Why London? Not very scenic.”

“It’s less of a destination for them,” Remus explains. “Dorcas is a costume designer, and she
moved there a few years ago for work, before she and Marlene were together. Marlene is moving
out there when her show closes.”

“Is Marlene a costume designer, too?” Sirius asks. Remus shakes his head.

“Carpenter and scenic painter.”

“Very cool.” Sirius nods, and Remus gets the feeling that he actually does find it very cool. “So
why didn’t they wait to get married until after the job ends?”

“I guess the plan was originally to move out there once the set was built, but now she has to stay
until the show closes?” Remus shrugs. “I’m not entirely sure. But either way, Marlene is there for a
couple of weeks now, and she’ll fly back after their honeymoon. Then she’s moving to London in,
what,” he looks to Lily. “May? June?”

“Second of June,” Lily says, flipping the page of her book.

“Second of June,” Remus nods.

“How did they meet?” This is James now, still standing, absently shifting his weight from one foot
to the other. “You said they started dating after your one friend already moved, right?”

“Dorcas,” Lily replies tiredly. “Her name is Dorcas.” James looks tickled that she spoke directly to
him.

“We all went to high school together,” Remus explains. “So they’ve actually known each other for,
like, ten years.”

“More than that,” Lily says. Remus rolls his eyes.

“I was approximating. Twelve years.”

“Thirteen,” Lily corrects.

“Whatever.” Remus looks at her to give her a ‘ does it really make that much of a difference?’ look,
but there is already a cheeky smile on her face like she knows what he’s thinking. So he just smiles
back.

“So that’s how you two met, too,” Sirius observes, and Remus looks back at him.
“We go a bit farther back than ninth grade, but yeah, we met in school.”

“How long have you been together, then?” James asks.

Lily’s head snaps up, and Remus lets an involuntary laugh escape his lips.

“Excuse me?” Lily splutters, while Remus says, “Lily and I are not together.”

“Your name is Lily, then?” James looks absolutely delighted to have finally received that piece of
information.

“Great job, Remus,” Lily mutters.

“Oh, would you stop?” Remus returns.

“Now he can stop calling her Remus’s pretty girlfriend,” Sirius teases, leaning back to look up at
James.

“Dude,” James hisses, kicking him again, and Sirius laughs.

Lily is looking down at her book again, letting her hair fall in her face in an obvious attempt to
cover her pinking cheeks. It’s not working. She clearly isn’t still reading, if she ever was; her eyes
aren’t even moving across the page.

“I told him you weren’t together,” Sirius says, looking at Remus again.

“Why were you so sure?” Remus asks. Sirius shrugs.

“Wishful thinking,” James says, poorly hiding it behind a fake cough, and Sirius ignores him.

“Just didn’t strike me as a couple,” he says with a little smile.

James clears his throat, and Remus and Sirius both look at him, but he only has eyes for Lily. She
doesn’t look up, still pretending to read her book.

“So, um,” James tries, still shuffling from foot to foot. “Lily is a beautiful name.”

Lily sighs, closing her book but keeping her finger between the pages to keep her place. “James,”
she says, finally giving him what he wants and looking up at him. He grins.

“Yes, Lily?”

“Please sit down. You’re making me anxious with all your fidgeting.” She opens the book and
begins to fake read again. Remus wonders if Sirius and James can tell she’s pretending.

With a dejected little puff, James sits on the floor next to Sirius, wrapping his arms around his
knees.

“So what about you guys?” Remus asks after it becomes clear that Lily isn’t planning to say
anything more to James. “What’s in London?”

“You don’t have to answer that,” James says out of the corner of his mouth, almost automatically.
Sirius rolls his eyes.

“We aren’t being questioned by the police, James.”

“I know that,” James protests. “But with the way your family--”

“At ease, Potter.” Sirius gives Remus an apologetic smile. “We have a legal matter to attend to. My
lawyer has advised me not to speak about it until it's settled.” Sirius gestures towards James, whose
serious, professional demeanor is completely at odds with both the way he is sitting and the
personality he has displayed thus far.

Lily has noticed the shift too. Her book sits forgotten in her lap as she stares curiously at him.

“Wait, he’s your--” Remus shakes his head and addresses James. “You’re his… lawyer? I thought-
-”

“I’m not at liberty--”

“James, he already knows you’re representing me.” Sirius shakes his head in fond exasperation and
looks at Remus. “Yeah, he’s my lawyer. But he also happens to be my best friend. We met in law
school.”

“Wait, alright, so wouldn’t that--are you also…?”

“I dropped out,” he explains.

“What do you do now?”

Sirius opens his mouth to answer, but at that moment, a flight attendant comes over the speaker to
announce boarding for Zone 1, and Sirius’s mouth closes into a thin smile. “That’s us,” he says.

James is already on his feet, slinging Sirius’s backpack over his shoulder and grabbing his own
briefcase.

“Of course you’re in first class,” Lily says, and if Remus didn’t know better, he would think she’s
trying not to smile.

James looks sheepish, but Sirius just grins and bows at her dramatically. “Of course,” he repeats.

“What are you even doing out here, then?” Remus asks. “Isn’t there a first class lounge?”

“There is,” James agrees, shifting on his feet again. “But we just--well, we wanted--”

“Maybe James was hoping to run into Remus and his pretty girlfriend ,” Sirius mocks, wrestling
his backpack away from an indignant James and slinging it over his shoulder again in a
devastatingly casual way. He shoots Remus one more smirk as he starts to walk backwards towards
the boarding line. “Maybe I was, too. We’ll see you on the plane, maybe.”

“Yeah,” Remus manages as Sirius turns around. “Maybe.”

As soon as they’re on the plane and out of earshot, Lily snaps her book shut and pulls her legs onto
the chair, tucking them under herself and turning her whole body towards Remus.

“So,” she says.

“You weren’t reading,” Remus accuses. She waves her hand dismissively.

“Of course not.” Her eyes flit from Remus to the now open gate and back to Remus. “So,” she says
again. “Sirius.”
“What about him?”

“I mean, he obviously likes you.”

Remus laughs, but then he realizes that Lily isn’t laughing with him. “You don’t--how on earth did
you come to that conclusion?”

“Well, for one,” she says impatiently, “the two of you talked the whole time.”

“It’s not as if you were contributing much to the conversation,” Remus protests.

“James tried,” she argues.

“James was trying to get you to talk to him.”

“And Sirius was only interested in hearing from you.”

“He was just being nice.”

“He thought you were hot.”

“Or he felt bad for me because I’m a cripple.”

“Oh my god, Remus.”

“What? It’s not, like, a super uncommon reaction to the cane.”

Lily sighs. “You really need to stop saying that word."

“I am, though,” Remus defends.

“There are so many better ways to say it."

“I guess,” Remus grumbles. “But I hate the word disabled.”

“What’s wrong with it?”

“It just takes itself so seriously,” Remus complains. “I mean, I feel like cripple is at least a little
funny.”

“It’s not funny,” Lily insists, scandalized. "There is nothing about that that's funny."

“Your reactions are funny,” Remus says, and Lily searches his face for a moment before breaking
into a reluctant smile.

“Fine,” she says with a disbelieving laugh. “Do whatever you want. I’m not your mom. But you’re
putting me in an impossible position, you understand.”

“How’s that?”

“Because if anyone else called you that, I would fight them.” It’s true, she would. “And if you’re
talking about yourself that way…” she takes a deep breath and holds up her fists as if she’s in a
boxing ring. “I think I have to kick your ass.”

“You’re gonna fight me?”

“Yes.”
“To defend my honor?”

“Mhm.”

“And you feel good about this? Attacking a gay cri--”

Lily laughs and punches him softly in the shoulder. “You’re a dickhead.”

Remus rubs his shoulder dramatically. “I’m pretty sure that was, like, several different types of
hate crime.”

She laughs again, and Remus laughs, too, and then the flight attendant’s tinny voice crackles over
the speaker.

“Now boarding American Airlines flight 105 for Zones 3 and 4.”

They collect their things, Lily matching Remus’s pace as they move slowly to the back of the
already long line.

“Is it really that unfathomable to you,” Lily says quietly once they’re in line, “that a guy could be
into you?”

“A guy?” Remus asks. “No, of course not. That guy? Yes. Yes, that is unfathomable to me.”

“Why, though?” Remus can tell that Lily is trying not to let her exasperation show, but she’s not
doing a very good job of hiding it, in his opinion.

“Lily,” he says patiently, “he’s rich, and extremely good-looking, and he saw me walking with a
cane. We don’t even know if he’s gay.”

Lily raises an eyebrow. “I think it seemed pretty--”

“And it doesn’t even matter,” Remus continues, “because we’re never going to see either of them
again.”

“We’re getting on the same plane as them,” she points out.

“Yeah,” Remus agrees, “but they’re in first class. We won’t even pass them on the way to our
seats. We’re in two completely different parts of the plane.”

Lily seems to sit with this for a moment. “I guess you’re right,” she says.
 Flight AA105

Remus stretches out his legs. Or he tries to, at least. He got an aisle seat for the extra leg room, but
he is, as Lily always reminds him, “unreasonably tall,” so he still has to bend his legs at kind of an
awkward angle to fit himself into the seat.

Usually, it wouldn’t be a problem. At least, it wouldn’t be enough of a problem for Remus to

consider it a problem. But his knee was already hurting before they got on the plane, and now,
they’ve been sitting on the tarmac for what feels like hours. The seatbelt sign isn’t on yet, but the
passengers have been instructed to keep the aisles as clear as possible.

“How much longer do we have to sit here?” Remus asks redundantly. Lily sighs.

“You have all the same information I do. They keep saying ‘any minute,’ but it’s been, like, forty-
five of them, so I’ve kind of lost hope at this point.” She glances at Remus. “You ok?”

He shrugs. “Do I have an option not to be?”

“You always have an option not to be.”

“What are we gonna do, get off the plane?” Remus huffs and adjusts his body so that his legs stick
out into the middle of the aisle.

“True,” Lily agrees. “But you can tell me, anyway.”

“It’s not that bad yet,” he says slowly, “but I’m not sure how I’ll manage eight more hours of this.”

Lily turns to look at him fully, concern in her eyes. “It’s that bad already?”

“I just said it’s not that bad.”

“Yeah, but it has to be really bad for you to admit you feel any pain at all.” She ducks down and
starts rooting around in her carry-on. “Hold on, I have some Advil in here.”

“Lily, I’m fine.”

A pretty flight attendant with an afro bun appears out of nowhere. “Sir,” she says, addressing
Remus with a benign smile, “I’m very sorry, but I’m going to have to ask you to keep the aisles
clear.”

“Sure,” Remus says. “Right, of course.” He scrambles to fold his legs back into his allotted space,
grimacing as he bends his bad knee.

“Excuse me.” Lily leans over his lap and gives the flight attendant a sweet smile. “Would we be
able to get some water, please?”

The flight attendant--Mary, her name tag says--flashes a smile back. “Of course. I’ll be right back
with that.”

As soon as the flight attendant disappears, Lily turns to Remus. “Switch seats with me.”

He looks at her incredulously.

“And squeeze myself into an even tinier space? No thank you.”

She rolls her eyes. “Just get up, would you?”

Remus rolls his eyes, but he follows her instructions, sliding into the aisle with Lily close behind
him. She instructs him to sit sideways in the window seat, leaning back against the window, then
sits in the aisle seat and lifts his legs to drape over her lap. His feet still dangle into the aisle a bit,
but it’s much more comfortable and less disruptive.

“Better?” Lily asks once they’re situated.

“Much,” Remus agrees. “Thank you.”

“Sure thing.” She pats his calf, and Mary appears again.

“Here you are,” she says, handing the water to Lily, then looking at Remus. “And I’m sorry sir, but
I am once again going to have to ask you to keep your legs--”

“Here.” Lily cuts her off, shoving the cup of water and a couple of Advils into Remus’s face. Mary
blinks a few times and purses her lips.

“Sir--”

“Just a second,” Lily interrupts again, a deceptively sweet smile on her face, then turns back to
Remus and wiggles the cup in front of his face. “Drink up, buttercup.”

Remus gives Mary an apologetic look, and she hovers while he takes the medicine from Lily, then
clears her throat when he hands the cup back.

“Alright, now could you please--”

“Can’t you see my friend is in pain?” Lily interrupts once more.

“Lily,” Remus groans. Mary blinks at her.

“I don't--”

“I understand that there are things beyond your control,” Lily says, “and I’m really not trying to be
a bitch. But for fuck’s sake--”

“Lily.”

“--we’ve been sitting here for so long, and we have no information, and he’s really not
comfortable--”

“Lily,” Remus interrupts more firmly. “It’s fine.” Lily huffs, but she shuts up. He turns to Mary.
“I’m really sorry, she’s just--I have a knee problem, and it’s bothering me a bit at the moment.
Could I--would it be alright--”

“Can he just sit like this for a few minutes to stretch out his legs?” Lily jumps in. “We’ll switch
back if the seatbelt light comes on or something.”

“Oh.” Mary looks back and forth between them a few times. “I mean, it’s kind of a fire hazard.”

“If there’s a fire,” Lily pipes up, “he’ll pull his legs in, like, so fucking fast, I promise.”

Mary laughs at this, and Lily’s smile turns genuine.

“Sure,” Mary says. “Alright, that’s fine. You’re not that far out into the aisle anyway. But just a
few minutes, ok?”

“Understood,” Remus says with a nod. “Thank you.”

“Thanks, Mary!” Lily calls after the flight attendant’s retreating form, and Remus sees Mary shake
her head as she walks away.

Remus kicks Lily’s hand.

“Ow,” she exclaims. “What was that for?”

“You can be such an asshole sometimes.”

“Ok, rude?”

“She was just doing her job!” Remus laughs. “You need to work on making good impressions.”

“I know she was!” Lily retorts, shoving one of his feet playfully. “And you need to work on not
calling people names.”

“It’s not the worst thing I’ve ever called you.”

“My second grade class knows how to use kind words. You are a grown man and can’t grasp the
concept.”

“That’s only because second graders don’t even know the word asshole.”

“Oh, you’d be surprised.”

“Hey!” A voice interrupts their conversation, and they both turn their heads to find James standing
in the middle of the aisle with Sirius slightly behind him. He has ditched the travel pillow around
his neck but not the grin. “I thought I heard you two,” he says, pushing his glasses up his nose.

Sirius leans sideways against the seat in front of Lily, getting a better view of the two of them. His
hair is tied back now, but it’s not quite long enough to be, so a few strands fall in front of his eyes
and against the back of his neck.

“Hello,” he says.

“Hi,” Remus returns with a smile.

Sirius smirks, his eyes running over Remus’s body and then back to his eyes. “You look cozy.”

“What are you doing out of your seats?” Lily demands. “The flight attendant said--”

“We’re… um, well,” James flounders. “We were actually--”

“We’re just stretching our legs,” Sirius offers, and James nods.

Lily scoffs and looks down at Remus’s legs in her lap. “Of course they let you stretch your legs,”
she grumbles.

James’s smile falters. “Sorry,” he says, “I don’t--”

“Because rich people,” Lily interrupts, “are allowed to do whatever they want.” She fixes James
with a glare, as if Remus’s bad knee is his fault, somehow. “Would you agree?”

Before James can say something to incense Lily further--because, clearly, this is some sort of trap--
Remus decides to come to his rescue.

“Lily’s upset because a flight attendant told me to get my legs out of the aisle,” he explains.

“Ah.” Sirius nods knowingly. “And here we come, traipsing in from first class, aisle full of legs.”

“Exactly.” Remus smiles, and Sirius smiles back, and Remus can’t help, again, feeling like they’re
in on some sort of joke together.

“We should probably get back, then,” Sirius says, putting a hand on James’s shoulder with-- is
Remus imagining it?-- a bit of reluctance.

“Wait,” James says, turning to Lily with a smile. “How would you like to sit in first class?”

“I know you’re not volunteering my seat,” Sirius scoffs.

“Depends,” Lily says coyly. “Will you be there?”

Remus looks at her quizzically, but she is still looking at James, who shoots Sirius a triumphant
look before turning back to Lily.

“Yes,” he says.

“Great!” Lily beams. “In that case, no. I have absolutely no interest in first class.”

Remus and Sirius find each other’s eyes again, and both burst into laughter at the same moment.

“I wouldn’t have given it up anyway, James,” Sirius says with a chuckle and a solid pat to James’s
back. “If anything, you should be offering to give Remus your first class spot and sit here in coach
with Red.” Lily huffs at the nickname, and Sirius winks at her.

James brightens. “Great point!” He turns to Remus. “Remus,” he says.

“James,” Sirius laughs, “I think we’ve bothered them enough--”

“How would you like to sit in first class?”

Remus smiles. “Yeah, sure.”

James, Sirius, and Lily all look at him with identical surprised expressions.

“Really?” James asks.

“Sure,” Remus says again, scrambling over Lily’s lap to land in the aisle. It’s not an elegant
maneuver, but Remus is kind of beyond caring; eight hours cramped into this seat would be
completely unbearable.

“Remus!” Lily looks at least as shocked as James, but not nearly as happy.

“Lily!” Remus replies in the same tone. “I know you’re, like, three feet tall--”

“I’m five foot four,” she grumbles.

“Same difference.” He reaches into the overhead compartment to get his carry on. “But I’m not
built for seats this small. It’s only been an hour, and my knee is already killing me. So yes, James, I
would love to take your seat in first class, thank you for offering.”

Lily groans. “Fine,” she says after a moment, beginning to unwrap her earbuds from around her
phone.

“Great!” James says, still beaming. He and Sirius share a look, then a terse little nod, then Sirius
takes the bag out of Remus’s hands before he can protest and starts walking towards the nose of
the plane.

“Come on.”

Remus glances back at Lily, but she is preoccupied with muttering a series of half-hearted but
exasperated protests-- wait, can you just, you could’ve just let me get out first, oh my god-- as
James squeezes past her and into Remus’s vacated seat.

“Hi,” he says once his seatbelt is buckled. Lily huffs and puts her earbuds in, turning resolutely
away. But if the grin on James’s face is any indication, he doesn’t seem to mind much. He just taps
a rhythm onto his knee and looks happily out the window.

First class looks exactly like coach, except everything is spread out more. There is more leg room,
the seats have more padding, and instead of rows of six seats separated in pairs by two aisles, there
is just one aisle with sets of two seats on each side. Remus doesn’t know what he was expecting,
but this is… anticlimactic.

“This is anticlimactic,” he says as Sirius dumps his bag in front of a chair and drops into the one
next to it.

“Yeah,” Sirius agrees as Remus foots his bag under his chair and sits down next to him. “But it
makes a world of difference.” He stretches his legs in front of him as if to illustrate just how much
of a difference it makes. Remus copies him, straightening his legs out and sighing.

“You’re right,” he says. “This is… priceless.”

“Not priceless,” Sirius corrects. “More leg room, better food, and bigger TVs can all be yours for
the low, low price of several thousand dollars.”

Remus laughs. “Or the low, low price of leaving my best friend to the wolves to sit with a
stranger.”

“James is hardly a wolf,” Sirius scoffs. “He’s more like… a stag.”

“A stag?”

“Like, a man deer.”

“Yes, thank you, Sirius, I know what a stag is.”

Sirius laughs. “You sounded confused!”

“I am confused,” Remus replies. “Why a stag?”

“They’re powerful, like wolves,” Sirius starts immediately, “but not vicious. They’re protectors,
and they’re symbols of, like, pride and… you know, they’re noble.”

“Stags… are noble,” Remus repeats slowly, and Sirius laughs and swats at him.
“Shut up, you know what I mean. Just the way they carry themselves.”

“It sounds like you’ve already given this some thought.”

“Plus,” Sirius adds, “James could never be a wolf. He’s a vegetarian.”

“No way,” Remus laughs. “So is Lily.” Sirius grins.

“Maybe he’s found his doe.”

“Lily isn’t nearly docile enough to be a deer,” Remus disagrees. He turns in his seat to face Sirius a
little better. “What about you, though?”

“Me?”

“Yeah, like, what animal would you be?”

Sirius lets his head rest against the back of the seat, staring up at the ceiling as if deep in thought.
“Probably like…” he pauses. “A dog,” he says confidently. Remus can’t help laughing again--he
seems to be doing a lot of that--and Sirius smirks.

“Why a dog?” Remus asks, and Sirius shrugs.

“I am very good at playing catch.”

This time when Remus laughs, Sirius’s smirk curls into a pleased grin.

“Ok,” he says when Remus stops laughing. “Your turn.”

“What animal am I?” Remus clarifies. Sirius nods, and Remus purses his lips in thought. “I don’t
know,” he admits. “Maybe a cat.”

“Oh no,” Sirius groans through a laugh. “A dog and a cat? This will never work. You have to go
back to coach.”

“No no, listen,” Remus says. “A cat is like… they like people, right, but they definitely need alone
time and personal space. And I feel like, if they could talk, they would be, like… really sarcastic.”
Sirius grins.

“Cats are also very cute,” he adds. Remus rolls his eyes.

“I can pick something less adorable.”

But Sirius just continues grinning infuriatingly at him. “Nah, you’re a cat.”

The seatbelt light dings on, and Remus’s attention moves to the voice coming over the speaker and
the flight attendant stepping into the first class cabin. Remus has only ever been on one other plane
before, when he was six and flew to visit his grandparents in Minnesota, so he pays close attention
to the instructions and emergency evacuation procedures being demonstrated at the front of the
cabin. But Sirius just mutters, “here we go,” leans his head back, and closes his eyes.

Remus kind of expects him to open his eyes again to continue their conversation once the
announcements are done--or at least once the plane has taken off--and is kind of disappointed when
he doesn’t. But this guy was nice enough to let Remus sit with him at all, and in first class no less.
He definitely doesn’t owe Remus anything. So Remus shakes himself out of it quickly, and instead
pulls his book out of his bag to read.
By the time he finishes the book, it is dark outside and the plane is nearly silent but for the drone
of the engine and the low hum of the fans overhead. He estimates that a couple of hours have
passed, and it is now pretty firmly nighttime. Sirius is still asleep, as are most of the passengers on
the plane, but Remus isn’t feeling particularly tired yet. So he gets up to use the bathroom while
there won’t be a line for him to wait in.

As he approaches the bathroom, he sees Lily leaving. She doesn’t see him, turning back towards
her seat before he can say hi, and he is about to call out for her when someone else emerges only a
moment behind her.

James smooths out the front of his shirt, looking around, and locks eyes with Remus.

They stare at each other for a moment, neither of them sure how to react, before James grins
sheepishly and shrugs. When Remus finally regains his ability to form thoughts, he returns James’s
shrug with a disbelieving shake to his head and a huff of a laugh. James clearly takes this as a good
sign, his smile growing before he turns to follow Lily down the aisle.

Remus does his business and washes his hands quickly, and when he gets back to his seat, Sirius is
awake. He is pointing a remote control at their shared screen, but he lowers it and smiles when he
sees Remus approaching.

“There you are,” he says in slightly above a whisper. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to conk out like that,
but I took a Xanax before we--"

“You will never believe what I just saw,” Remus interrupts, sliding into his seat and leaning
excitedly towards Sirius. Sirius blinks a few times.

“What?”

“Well, there were two people coming out of the bathroom together.”

Sirius’s smile grows. “Mile high club, nice.”

“That’s not even the best part,” Remus says gleefully, and Sirius raises his eyebrows. “The best
part is that we know those people.” Sirius’s eyebrows raise even higher.

“James and Lily?”

“Yes!”

“No way.”

“Way.”

Sirius laughs and shakes his head in disbelief, the same way Remus did when he saw them slipping
out of the bathroom seconds apart. “Wow, I can’t believe that. James never does stuff like that.”

“Neither does Lily!” Remus lets his head roll back so that he’s looking at the ceiling. “God, this is
gonna give me years of bullying material.”

Sirius lets out a surprised laugh, and Remus turns quickly to shush him.

“You sound like a great friend,” he manages after a moment, back to whispering.

“Oh please,” Remus says with a roll of his eyes. “Can you even call someone your best friend if
you don’t relentlessly hound them about every bad decision they make?”
“Fair,” Sirius says, “but James isn’t a bad decision.”

“Ok, but having sex on a plane? I am never, ever going to let that go.”

Sirius laughs again. “You don’t even know they had sex!”

“No, but I’m gonna go ahead and assume it.” He leans his head back again and closes his eyes,
letting a blissful smile take over his face. “God, I’m going to make so many ridiculous assumptions
and baseless accusations. This is going to be so much fun.”

“You’re not a cat,” Sirius accuses, “you’re a wolf.” Remus turns his head to smile at him, and
Sirius points a finger in his face. “You said you were worried about leaving your best friend to the
wolves, but no, the wolf is you.”

“The real wolf was inside me all along,” Remus drawls, and Sirius claps a hand over his mouth to
cover his laugh.

“Just circling your prey,” he chides, “waiting for a chance to strike.”

Remus glances at the television and realizes what Sirius has queued up on the screen. “Oh, hey,”
he says suddenly, “were you about to watch Jumanji?” Sirius grins.

“Yeah, why? Do you like this movie?”

“I fucking love this movie,” Remus exclaims. He turns to Sirius, who is still just smiling at him.
“Well what are you waiting for? Play it.”

Sirius grins wider and presses play. Instead of trying to figure out a two-person headphone
situation, they decide to watch it on mute with subtitles.

“Classic airplane movie,” Sirius says during the opening credits. “But I do always kind of wonder
why they never have more, like, plane-related movies on flights.”

“Plane-related movies?” Remus repeats.

“Yeah,” Sirius nods. “Like, you know, Airplane. You ever seen that?”

“I have, but it was a long time ago.”

“It’s funny. Or, oh, like Conair.”

“With Nicolas Cage?”

Sirius nodes enthusiastically. “Great movie.”

“I’ve never seen it,” Remus admits. Sirius gasps.

“Remus, you’ve got to. Ok, what about… what about Snakes on a Plane?”

“I’ve never seen that one either,” Remus says. “But let me guess, it’s about snakes? Getting loose
in a plane?”

Sirius grins. “Are you sure you’ve never seen it? You seem to have a pretty good handle on the
plot.”

“I can’t even think of any plane-related movies. Except…” Remus trails off and he feels his face
flush. Sirius’s grin widens.

“What?”

“Nothing.”

“No, come on, you can’t do that. What were you about to say? What movie?”

“I was just going to say,” Remus starts, unable to avoid Sirius’s direct questioning, “that, you
know, the airport chase is a pretty popular trope in romantic comedies.”

“Oh,” Sirius nods, smiling knowingly. “I know what you mean. There’s that airport scene in Love,
Actually.”

“And The Wedding Singer,” Remus adds, “and Sleepless in Seattle, and Crazy Rich Asians, and…
well, there are a lot. Of, you know, romantic plane and airport scenes.”

“So you’re a big romantic, then?” Sirius teases.

“I’m not,” Remus says immediately. This is exactly why he hadn’t wanted to finish the thought.
“Not personally, I mean. Not that I… I mean, it’s not as if I have a problem with it or anything, it’s
just… with, well, what I do for work--”

“What do you do?” Sirius asks, and he actually looks interested in the answer.

“I’m in publishing,” Remus says, but Sirius is still looking at him like he’s waiting for the rest of
the answer, so he continues. “I’m an editor. I mainly work with romance novels that have, like, a
comedic or whimsical element to them. So, you know. I happen to know a lot about rom-coms.”

Sirius hums in understanding. “So how do you feel about the trope?”

“The big airport chase?” Remus clarifies, and Sirius nods. “I like it, honestly. I’ll be the first to
admit, I love a good trope. When it’s done well, I mean. If you take yourself too seriously, it’s
cliche. But if you lean into it? See the humor in it, acknowledge it, and do it anyway? That’s
camp.”

Sirius looks momentarily confused. “Camp? As in--”

“Not camp as in gay,” Remus laughs. “Camp as in, like, tongue-in-cheek, performative,
exaggerated… You know. Although,” he glances at Sirius to gauge his reaction. “Yes, that too,
sometimes. I work with a lot of queer love stories.”

“That’s cool,” Sirius says with a nod, and Remus is almost frustrated at how little of a reaction it
is.

“I’m gay,” Remus offers in a bid to get some kind of reaction, “so I… I actually tend to prefer that
kind of story.”

“Cool,” Sirius repeats, and this time he’s wearing a little smile that, for some reason, frustrates
Remus even more.

“And you…” Remus starts, then realizes he has no idea how to ask the question he wants to ask
without sounding like a jackass. He clears his throat. “What do you do for work?”

Sirius looks a bit surprised, but he recovers quickly. “I’m actually in school right now. Again, I
mean.”
“Oh?” Remus leans slightly towards Sirius. “For what?”

“Getting my masters in social work?” Sirius says it like a question, then he shrugs. “I want to be a,
um, a therapist.”

“How did you get there?” Remus asks. “You know, from law.”

“Oh.” Sirius looks down at his lap. “Well, I never actually wanted to go into law.” This time, it’s
Remus who waits for Sirius to continue, and after a few seconds, he does. “My parents,” he says
eventually. “They--well, they kind of decided it for me.”

“But you dropped out.”

“I did,” Sirius nods, still looking at his lap.

“What caused that change?”

“Are you sure you’re not the therapist?” Sirius laughs, then he sighs. “Well, ok. So, I got
disinherited.”

“Oh, I’m sorry,” Remus says hastily. “I didn’t mean to--”

“It’s fine, Remus.” Sirius finally looks up to give him a smile.

“You don’t have to tell me anything, obviously,” Remus says. “I’m just a stranger you met at an
airport.”

“No, it’s really fine. We’re about to spend a whole night together, might as well get to know each
other.” Remus flushes; he knows that’s not what Sirius meant, but he feels his face heating up at
the implication anyway. “Right,” Sirius continues after a moment. “So, basically, the short version
is that I came home for Christmas my second year of law school and told them I was going to be a
public defender, they totally flipped their shit, and the conversation ended with me packing my
bags. And I haven’t spoken to them since.”

“Wait, so you got disowned over… what?” Remus shakes his head in disbelief, not sure he’s
understanding correctly. “Wanting to be the wrong kind of lawyer?”

“Yes,” Sirius laughs bitterly. “Public defenders don’t typically make more than five figures, you
see.”

“Well that’s just absurd,” Remus scoffs. “You can’t choose your career solely based on how much
money you’ll make.”

“That’s what I tried to tell them,” Sirius grumbles. “But they didn’t agree, and they were the ones
paying for law school.”

Remus looks around the first class cabin, wondering how Sirius affords this kind of lifestyle as a
disinherited masters student. “But you…” he starts without thinking, then stops himself and looks
sheepishly at Sirius. “Sorry, no, that’s none of my business.”

Sirius just smiles wryly. “I’m not making much right now,” he says, zeroing in perfectly on what
Remus stopped himself from asking, “but I--well, you know, we had a lot of money growing up.
So I had plenty in the bank before they disowned me. And a trust fund from my uncle.” He glances
at Remus, then at his lap, and his voice gets quieter. “Believe me, I do know how fortunate I am to
have that.”
“I wasn’t judging you, Sirius,” Remus says gently. Sirius shrugs.

“Yeah, well. I wouldn’t blame you if you did.”

“Really,” Remus insists, “I wasn’t. I can’t imagine what that must have been like, with your
family.” He places his hand on top of Sirius’s in what he hopes is a reassuring gesture, but Sirius
looks shocked, so he removes it a moment later, a bit embarrassed. “Is that, uh… When we were
talking at the gate, James said something…”

“Right,” Sirius nods. “London. So, my uncle--the one who gave me the trust fund--he used to live
in London.”

“And where is he now?”

“Dead.”

“Oh god.” Remus’s eyes widened. “I am so--”

“You need to stop apologizing,” Sirius says with a smile. Remus smiles back.

“Lily says the same thing.”

“She sounds like a good friend.” Sirius clears his throat, and his smile becomes a bit strained as he
averts his gaze. “Well, he passed away, and he left everything to me. And my family is… they’re
trying to get it. That’s, again, the short version. They’ve made the past few months hell for me.”

“That’s just…” Remus shakes his head, unable to imagine his own parents caring more about
money than his wellbeing and happiness. “Horrible. Why are they... doing that?”

“They think it belongs to them.”

“Even though he left it to you.”

“The Blacks are a very rich and powerful family. This is something they want, and it’s
inconceivable to them that they can’t have it.” Sirius laughs, but there’s no humor in it. “James
would kill me if he knew I was telling you all this.”

“Oh,” Remus starts, “sorry--”

“Stop apologizing!”

“Sorry, I just--oh, I did it again, sorry--” Sirius laughs, and Remus groans and puts his head in his
hands. “I just meant… You don’t have to tell me things that your lawyer has advised against.”

“It’s fine,” Sirius says softly. “James is just protective of me.”

“Good,” Remus says with finality. “It sounds like someone needs to be.”

“That’s…” Sirius sighs. “Thank you for saying that.”

“You’re welcome.”

“What about you?” Sirius turns a bit in his seat to look at Remus. “What’s your story?”

“My story?”
“Yeah, I told you mine. So what’s your, like, big horrible thing?”

Remus blanches. There it is. “Are you asking why I use a cane?”

Sirius is silent for a moment. “I wasn’t, actually. And you don’t have to tell me anything you don’t
want to.” He looks at Remus thoughtfully, then smirks. “Actually, if there’s something juicier, I
would definitely rather hear about that.”

Despite himself, Remus laughs. “Sorry for assuming, I guess I’m just used to--”

“Remus,” Sirius interrupts, exasperated, “if you don’t stop apologizing for shit that--”

“Oh, sorry, I--”

“Dude.”

“Oh my god, I can’t stop!” They both erupt into laughter, then turn to shush each other at the same
time, which only makes both of them laugh harder. When he finally regains his composure, Remus
looks at Sirius to find him already looking back. “I didn’t realize how much I say sorry.”

Sirius nods. “It’s a lot.”

“Apparently.”

“Why do you think that is?”

Remus gives him an unimpressed look. “Sirius, I already have a therapist. That position is filled,
but thank you anyway.”

Sirius chuckles softly. “Maybe I’m just trying to get to know you.”

“Yeah, alright,” Remus gives him. “My story.” He looks at the ceiling. “Well, my family situation
is kind of the inverse of yours, I guess. We didn’t have much money, but my parents are--they’re,
like, completely amazing.” He looks at Sirius, suddenly, worried that might have been an
insensitive thing to say. “I’m--”

“Don’t you dare,” Sirius says, and Remus smiles, because he was just about to apologize.

“Right,” he laughs. “Anyway, we were kind of poor, but I never really felt it, growing up. So, yeah,
I guess my knee is the big, horrible thing.” Sirius doesn’t ask any follow-up questions, but he’s still
looking at Remus like he has the floor.

“Actually,” Remus continues after a moment, “it’s not my knee that’s the big horrible thing. My
knee--yeah, it hurts, and it sucks, and some days it’s worse than others. And I had a million
surgeries on it as a kid and, like, obviously that’s never been fun. But it’s--I’m used to it, you
know? Like, this has been my whole life. The big, horrible thing is the way people act about it.
Like, I’m totally normal and likable and fine until someone sees the cane or, you know, until I
can’t do something and someone asks why.”

“And that happens a lot?” Sirius looks genuinely surprised. “People acting weird about it?”

Remus scoffs. “All the time,” he affirms. “Like, people I have totally normal and comfortable
interactions with will see the cane for the first time and suddenly start treating me like a child, or
like I’m eighty, or made of glass. And dating is hard. I’ll be getting to know someone, and they’ll
suggest going on a hike or, I don’t know, the zoo or the park or something that requires being on
your feet for a long time, and then I have to explain why I can’t. And they always act like it’s
totally cool, but then I never hear from them again. And, yeah, I know it probably shouldn’t, but it
bothers me when people can’t get past it.”

Sirius doesn’t respond right away, and Remus is immediately embarrassed for sharing so much. He
almost never talks about this kind of thing with anyone but Lily. But Sirius surprises him.

“That’s their loss,” he says.

Remus rolls his eyes almost on instinct. “You don’t have to--”

“No, I mean it,” Sirius interjects with feeling. “It’s not something people should have to get past.
You’re--you have a lot going for you.”

“You don’t even know me,” Remus laughs.

Sirius shrugs. “Maybe not, but I feel like I kind of do? At least, what I do know about you, I like.
You’re funny and you're, like--” Sirius cuts himself off with a shake of his head and a soft laugh.
“So you use a cane sometimes and can’t go hiking. How much of a difference could that possibly
make?”

“Someday,” Remus says slowly, ignoring the fact that he is definitely blushing at both the
compliment and the vulnerable nature of the conversation, “it could make a great deal of
difference. I could… I will almost definitely lose all mobility in my leg, eventually. I’ll probably
end up in a wheelchair, at least some of the time.”

“And I’m not trying to diminish how much that would suck,” Sirius says without missing a beat.
“But it won’t affect your ability to do your job, right? And from what you’ve said about them, I
don’t think it will affect your relationship with Lily, or your family. It shouldn’t affect how anyone
else feels about you, either.”

“But it will,” Remus points out.

“Yeah,” Sirius agrees. “It will. But again, that’s their loss, not yours.” A pause. “I get it, though,”
he says after a moment. “I mean, not, like--I don’t ‘get it,’ get it, but… My parents suck, right? I
mean, they completely suck. But the worst thing about them sucking isn’t the fact that they suck,
it’s the fact that my brother, who doesn’t always suck, won’t talk to me anymore. It was like, as
soon everything happened with my parents, his opinion of me changed. So I do get how, like--”

“The thing itself isn’t the worst part,” Remus supplies. “It’s people’s reactions to the thing.”

“Right,” Sirius nods. “Exactly. So, yeah, that makes total sense to me.” He glances at Remus, and
something seems to occur to him. “Hey, by the way, if I ever say anything that--if anything I say
makes you uncomfortable, about your knee or whatever, feel free to tell me off.”

“I won’t have a chance,” Remus says. “Lily will beat me to it.”

Sirius smiles. “I knew I liked her.”

Remus feels a swoop in his stomach, and for a second he thinks it’s an internal reaction to Sirius,
until he feels it again, like the drop in an amusement park ride.

“No,” Sirius says quietly, closing his eyes and leaning back in his seat. “No, this isn’t happening.”

“It’s just turbulence,” Remus offers as the plane jolts again.

Sirius nods. His face has gone pale, and his eyes are squeezed shut. A few moments later, the
seatbelt light dings on.

“Folks,” a tinny and far-too-peppy voice comes over the speaker, “this is your lead flight attendant,
Mary. The pilot has informed me that we will be making an emergency landing.”

“This is my worst nightmare,” Sirius says.

“We ask you at this time to fasten your seatbelts, return your seat backs to their upright position,
and remain calm. We will be landing in approximately nine minutes.”

“I have actually had this nightmare before,” Sirius says, almost wondrously. “Am I dreaming right
now?”

“We also ask for your full attention and cooperation as we do everything possible to prepare for
this emergency situation. Once we have safely landed, please await our instructions on how to exit
the aircraft. And please remember that the crew is fully trained for this type of situation.”

“Fully trained,” Sirius says. “That means it’s never happened before.”

“We’ll be on the ground in nine minutes,” Remus says.

“Remus,” Sirius exhales, clutching his armrests so hard his knuckles are turning white. “There is
so much that could happen in nine minutes.”

“It’ll be fine,” Remus assures him.

“You don’t know that,” Sirius points out.

“No,” Remus agrees, “but do you have any idea how unlikely it is to die on a plane?” Sirius
doesn’t answer, so Remus continues. “You’re like, two thousand times more likely to die in a car
crash than--”

“Remus,” Sirius breathes again, eyes still closed, hands clutching harder at the armrests. All the
color has left his face. “I really don’t want to hear about all the different ways I could die right
now.”

“Right, sorry, of course not,” Remus hastens. He decides to leave Sirius alone and busies himself
by putting his book back into his bag and zipping it up.

“Would you--can you distract me?” Sirius says quietly after a moment.

“Yes,” Remus replies immediately, but nothing comes to mind, so he asks, “With what?”

“I don’t know,” Sirius says. “Talk about anything. One of those movies, I don’t know. Anything.”

“Have you seen She’s Out of My League?” Remus doesn’t really know where it comes from.

“No,” Sirius says. “Is it a rom-com?”

“Yeah.”

“I don’t watch many of those. I mean, unless I have a… reason to.”

“Ok,” Remus starts, “well it’s about a guy whose ex is kind of horrible to him, but his family loves
her, so she’s, like, always around.”
“Fucking nightmare,” Sirius grumbles.

“Yeah,” Remus agrees, though he’s not sure if Sirius means the movie or their current situation.
“So he meets this girl, and lots of romantic comedy things happen, blah blah blah--”

“Blah blah blah?” Sirius repeats. He’s still leaning back with his eyes closed and his hands gripping
the armrests, but Remus sees the corner of his mouth quirk up. “We’re skipping over all the
romantic comedy things? Isn’t this your area of expertise?”

“Yes,” Remus says, “but the point is, there’s a pretty great plane scene.”

“I don’t want to talk about planes,” Sirius groans.

“This one is on the ground still,” Remus says. “So, listen, he’s a TSA guy, and he meets this girl at
the airport and she turns out to be, like, the love of his life. And they’ve already gone through all
the typical rom-com stuff, and now they’re at the part of the movie where everything has gone to
shit.” Sirius nods like he understands, so Remus continues. “So he’s on a plane with his family and
his ex-girlfriend, about to go on some stupid trip, and he gets news that the love of his life is in the
airport looking for him.”

“No,” Sirius says playfully, and his eyes are open now. “What are the odds!”

“So he gets up from his seat,” Remus continues, turning more fully to face Sirius and talk with his
hands, “and he does this whole impassioned speech where he’s like, you guys all suck, and starts
cursing out his whole family.”

“Good for him.”

“I know. So he does this whole rant, curses out his family and his ex, and turns to get off the
plane.” Remus pauses here for dramatic effect. “But then the flight attendant is like, ‘the door is
closed, you can’t get off.’”

“No!”

“Yes! So he has to, like, go back to his family and just… sit with them.”

“Nooo,” Sirius groans, but he’s laughing now.

“I know,” Remus agrees. “Right after he’s just told them all to go fuck themselves.”

“Ok, I lied, that is my actual worst nightmare.” Sirius is paying full attention to this pointless story
now, for some reason. He still kind of looks like he’s going to be sick, but his eyes are open and
he’s turned a bit in his seat to face Remus. “Well what happens?”

“I mean, he gets the girl, of course,” Remus says dismissively. “It’s a rom-com.”

“But how?”

Remus laughs. “I don’t remember. They stop the plane, somehow, and he goes into the airport and
tells her he wants to be with her, or whatever.”

“Or whatever,” Sirius repeats.

“Yeah.” Remus shrugs. “They all kind of end the same way. Everything works out and everyone
ends up with the love of their life. The One, if you will.”
“You don’t sound like you buy into it,” Sirius says.

“What do you mean?”

“The One.”

“I don’t,” Remus answers immediately.

“But you like romantic comedies?”

“I love romantic comedies,” Remus corrects. “But they’re just stories. They follow a form: person
meets person, person falls in love with person, big problem happens, they work it out in the end.
That kind of story doesn’t--or shouldn’t--try to mirror real life.”

“What do you mean?”

“A romantic comedy works best when it has a sense of humor about itself,” Remus explains.
“Leans into the ridiculousness a little bit. It’s a fantasy, you know? It does a job: makes you laugh,
makes you feel good. But real life doesn’t work that way, and a good rom-com doesn’t try to
convince you it does.”

“I guess,” Sirius agrees slowly. “But when you click with someone, it--doesn’t it kind of feel
cheesy and stupid like that? Like, it’s capturing a feeling.”

Remus ponders this for a moment. “You’re completely right,” he says finally, and Sirius throws his
fist into the air in triumph.

“And you can meet someone anywhere,” Sirius says. He hesitates, just barely, just long enough for
Remus to wonder if he’s about to be sick or something, but he continues a moment later. “Like an
airport,” he says finally.

Remus laughs. “Like an airport, sure. Although the guy in the movie worked at one, so it does
make sense for him. I feel like ‘at work’ isn’t a particularly interesting place to meet someone.”

Sirius blinks, then nods slowly. “Sure,” he says.

Before Remus can say anything else, the plane jolts again. Sirius squeezes his eyes shut and grasps
the arm rest. The flight attendant’s voice comes over the speaker again, announcing how close
they are to landing, but Remus isn’t really listening this time.

“Sirius,” he says, placing a hand on the arm rest between them, “you alright?”

“No,” Sirius manages with a weak laugh. “This sucks.”

“We’re almost on the ground.”

“Almost all aircraft accidents happen during takeoff and landing,” Sirius recites, as if reading off
an infographic.

The plane jolts again, and this time, Sirius grabs Remus’s hand. He seems to notice a moment later
and lets go with a mumbled, “sorry.”

“It’s alright,” Remus says. “Would it make you feel better? To--”

“No,” Sirius insists. “I’m fine.”

Another jolt, bigger than the last two, and Sirius grabs Remus’s hand again. Remus gives it a
reassuring squeeze, and Sirius lets out a slow exhale through his nose and doesn’t let go until
they’re on the ground.
 St. John's Int'l (YYT)
Chapter Notes

OK i had some personal stuff happening & this took a lot longer than originally
anticipated BUT here we are!!

See the end of the chapter for more notes

They stumble off the plane in a crowd of bleary-eyed and grumbling passengers. It’s the middle of
the night, and most people, by the looks of it, were awoken from their slumbers by either the
turbulence or the announcement of the emergency landing.

Sirius held Remus’s hand until the plane was pulled up to the gate and the seatbelt sign turned off,
at which point he seemed to realize he was still holding on and sheepishly pulled his hand back.
Remus flexed his fingers a few times, regaining feeling.

“Sorry,” Sirius mumbled as he stood to pull his backpack from the overhead compartment.

“Don’t worry about it,” Remus replied airily.

They silently followed the flow of passengers out the door of the aircraft and down the hallway,
into a strange, seemingly empty airport, where they are now waiting a bit awkwardly for James
and Lily to appear.

Sirius’s face has returned to a normal color, but he still hasn’t spoken, and Remus doesn’t want to
bother him. So he finds a seat at the gate and settles in with his cane propped against his knee.
After a moment, Sirius sighs and drops into the seat next to him, letting his backpack fall to the
floor between his legs. He pulls his hair out of its tie, shaking it out and running his hand through it
so that it falls on one side of his face.

Remus is about to ask if he’s ok, if he needs a bottle of water or something, when a flurry of jet
black hair and neon orange streaks towards them with a shout.

As James launches himself onto Sirius’s lap, Sirius lets out a little oof! followed by a weak, breathy
laugh.

“Sirius!” James exclaims, pillow around his neck again, wrapping his arms around his friend. “Are
you alright?”

“I’m fine.”

Lily appears behind him a moment later, her hair looking a bit tousled, and Remus catches her eye
and raises a suggestive eyebrow as his eyes flit to James and back. Are we gonna talk about what
happened between you two on the plane?

Lily’s eyes widen a bit in surprise, but she quickly schools her face into a scowl. Later, she says
with her eyes.

Remus grins. You have to tell me everything.

Lily rolls her eyes. Duh.

“I was worried about you,” James is saying now, still on Sirius’s lap, his arms draped around
Sirius’s shoulders.

“You’re being embarrassing, James,” Sirius says through another laugh.

“I never would have left you alone up there if I knew something like that was gonna happen.”

“No one could have known we were going to have an emergency landing,” Lily points out, “which
is why it’s called an emergency. But there’s always a risk of something like that happening.” Ever
the realist, Lily.

Sirius laughs weakly. “I do not want to get back on that plane.”

“Aw,” James coos, patting Sirius on the head like a dog. Sirius pushes him off his lap.

“Stop petting me, you weirdo.”

The speakers overhead crackle, and the soft din of chatter quietens somewhat as Mary’s voice
comes over the speaker from the desk at the gate, announcing their location (somewhere in
Canada) and the time (far too late) and the temperature (far, far too cold). The room erupts into
groans as she explains the reason for landing--something about “engine trouble” and “an
abundance of caution”--and asserts that they will be on the move again first thing in the morning,
her voice still chipper and pleasant.

“We’re stuck here, then,” James says, pushing his glasses up the bridge of his nose and blinking up
at Sirius from his heap on the floor. “I’ve never been to Canada. It’s like an adventure.” Lily rolls
her eyes again, but Remus doesn’t miss the trace of a smile on her lips.

“I think we need more information,” Lily says, her hands firmly on her hips. “We need to tell
Marlene and Dorcas what time we’ll be arriving so they’re not waiting up for us at the airport.”

“I was thinking the same thing.” James scrambles to his feet. “Should we go talk to the flight
attendant?”

Lily eyes him for a moment, then nods and stalks wordlessly to the end of the already forming line
at the counter, where Mary and her cohort are nodding kindly and answering questions with smiles
on their faces. James only balks for a moment before grabbing his briefcase by the handle and
scurrying after her.

“If we’re going to be here all night,” Sirius says, finally looking and sounding like himself again,
“we should go find provisions.”

“Oh, thank god,” Remus replies, “I’m starving.” He stands, stretching his arms above his head and
shaking out his legs. Sirius’s eyes flit to where Remus’s shirt is riding up a bit on his hips, then he
looks away and clears his throat. A moment later, he stands too, slinging his backpack over his
shoulder.

“Alright,” he says gruffly, “let’s go.”

“Everything is probably closed,” Remus points out as he walks next to Sirius, duffle in one hand
and cane in the other, clicking a steady rhythm on the linoleum floor, which echoes around the
empty hall. “It seems like we’re the only people here.”
“Yeah,” Sirius agrees, “but there have to be some vending machines somewhere, right?”

They search for a while, and eventually they do find vending machines--one soda machine and one
snack machine--and luckily, both take credit cards.

“So,” Remus says as Sirius eyes the selection of snacks, “you’re not a fan of flying.”

Sirius huffs as he types in a series of numbers and watches the machine dispense his potato chips.
“I’m not afraid of flying.” He retrieves his chips and taps the card to the reader again to select
another snack.

“I didn’t say anything about being afraid,” Remus points out. “But if you are--”

“I’m not.”

“Fine, sure, but you know, you’re more likely to--”

“I know you’re more likely to die in a car crash--and thank you for that extremely useful and not at
all terrifying piece of information, by the way--” Remus laughs as Sirius spiritedly punches in
another number. “But at least if you’re driving a car, you have some element of control in it. In a
plane, you’re at the mercy of the pilot, and, like--alright, let’s just be real for a second. If
something happens, you’re miles in the sky. You’d be an idiot not to see how scary that is.”

“So you are afraid of flying,” Remus confirms playfully.

“Alright, fine!” Sirius throws his hands up in mock surrender, and Remus huffs out a laugh. “I am a
little bit scared of airplanes. They’re metal death traps in the sky, Remus.” He taps his card again
and steps back, gesturing for Remus to take a look. “You want anything in particular?”

“Oh, I--” Remus stutters, reaching inside his duffle for his own card. “That’s alright, I can--”

“Oh, just stop,” Sirius says. “I’m very rich. And possibly about to become richer. You can let me
buy you a snack.”

Remus pauses in his search for his card. “How rich, exactly?”

Sirius raises an eyebrow and the side of his mouth quirks up. “Very.” When Remus doesn’t
immediately concede, he leans closer and says, “Like, stupid rich.”

Remus sighs and zips up his bag, then looks at Sirius and says, in as dignified a tone as he can
muster, “I was going to get a Snickers.”

Sirius’s smirk grows into a smile as he turns to punch the number into the machine. “A man of
taste,” he says. Sirius bends to collect the snacks out of the machine, then stands to hand the
chocolate bar to Remus. “Consider it a thank you for the pleasure of your company,” he says, and
Remus definitely does not blush.

They stuff the rest of the snacks into Sirius’s backpack, then set back off in the direction of the
gate. Even with his cane, Remus’s knee is bothering him again. The trek at the airport and the time
spent folded into his original coach seat with Lily did not do his knee any favors, and the pain
always gets worse--or at least more noticeable--when he’s tired, or hungry, or physically
dysregulated in some way. He knows he’s moving slower than usual, and he silently prays that
Sirius doesn’t notice.

To his credit, Sirius doesn’t seem to notice. Or if he does, he at least doesn’t seem to care. He
walks next to Remus, matching his pace like they’re taking a leisurely stroll, chattering away
through a bag of potato chips. But after they have been walking for a while, Remus does have to
stop.

“I’m sorry,” he says by way of explanation when Sirius stops too and looks at him curiously. “My
knee.”

“Oh,” Sirius says, glancing down at Remus’s duffle. “Would it help if I carry your bag?”

Remus shakes his head, feeling his neck begin to heat up. “It’s not--the weight is fine, it’s just--it’s
the movement. I’ve been on it a lot today. I just need to rest for a minute, and then I’ll be fine.”
Sirius nods, and Remus grimaces. “I’m sorry,” he says again.

“Oh my god,” Sirius says, exasperated, “would you please stop apologizing?”

“I’m--” Remus starts, then shakes his head. He’s sure he’s blushing now. “It’s just…
embarrassing.”

“Remus,” Sirius says patiently. “You just watched me have a meltdown on a plane. Correct me if
I’m wrong, but I think we’re there.”

Remus considers this. It seems true enough, but he’s still kind of waiting for the other shoe to drop.
No one is ever this cool about it forever. Except Lily.

“Alright,” says Sirius definitively after a moment. “Get on my back.”

“What?”

“On my back,” Sirius repeats, swinging his backpack around to the front of his body and holding
out his hand for Remus’s bag. “Come on, piggy back ride.”

Remus flushes even harder, still deciding whether he should be insulted or amused. Or both. “You
do not have to do that.”

“I know that,” Sirius agrees. “But maybe I’m just looking for an excuse to show off how big and
strong I am.”

“You really don’t need to--”

“Maybe,” Sirius interrupts, backpack hanging in front of his stomach, still holding his hand out for
Remus’s bag, “maybe it hurt my pride a little bit for you to see me like that on the plane, and I’m
trying to redeem myself. Maybe you would be doing me a favor.”

Remus doesn’t know what to say. “You look ridiculous,” he settles on. Definitely amused--jury’s
still out on whether he feels insulted. Sirius glances down at his backpack and smirks.

“Right,” he says. “So put me out of my misery, will you? Come on.”

After only a moment of hesitation, Remus exhales hard through his nose and hands his bag over to
Sirius, who grins and squats down. Remus scrambles onto his back less than gracefully and grabs
his cane with both hands in front of Sirius’s chest. “This is ridiculous,” he mutters.

Sirius chuckles as he tucks his arms under Remus’s knees and sets off walking again. “A little bit,”
he admits, “but I-- ah, shit--”

Remus feels a jolt as Sirius’s hands start to slip, and he scrambles to hold on, letting out an
embarrassing noise. But Sirius just adjusts his grip with a laugh and keeps walking.

“Ha, just kidding. Got you.”

“Oh my god,” Remus laughs, indulgently letting his forehead rest in the crook of Sirius’s neck for
a moment. “You are an asshole.”

Sirius laughs again, a loud, booming thing. “You’ll get used to it,” he says.

Sirius walks for a while without slowing down, even despite the two bags and fully grown man he
is carrying. He barely seems to register the weight, bantering easily with Remus as if they are just
walking next to each other down the hall, and Remus begins to relax into it. So much so, in fact,
that he forgets to actually pay attention to where they are going.

“And he still won’t let me pet him,” Sirius is saying about a stray dog that he visits every week and
has named Whiskers, “but he has started accepting treats, so I think it’s only a matter of time--”

“Sirius,” Remus interrupts.

“Yeah? What’s up?”

“Do you know our gate number?”

Sirius stops walking. They both look around in silence for a moment, taking note of their
surroundings. None of it looks at all familiar to Remus, and there is no one else around. The walls
are lined with windows, which probably provides quite a bit of natural light during the day, but in
the middle of the night with no sun to speak of, the hallway is too dark and eerily silent, as if
existing outside of time and space.

“No,” Sirius admits. “I guess I wasn’t paying attention.”

“Me neither.” Remus taps Sirius on the shoulder with his cane. “Unhand me, knave.” Sirius laughs
and lowers him until his feet are on the ground.

“My apologies, your majesty.”

“Off with your head,” Remus retorts nonsensically, pulling his phone out of his pocket and
unlocking the home screen. “I’ll ask Lily.”

“Good idea.” Sirius switches his backpack back around to the correct side of his body. “Although
she and James might be… enjoying their alone time.”

“Ew,” Remus says with no bite behind it, and Sirius laughs and walks in a little circle around
Remus, taking in their surroundings.

“I really thought we were going in the right direction,” he says, shaking his head in disbelief. Then
he stops in his tracks and a smile spreads over his face. “Oh, man,” he says, “I’ve always wanted to
do this.”

“Do what?” Remus asks, looking up from his phone as he slips it back into his pocket, but Sirius is
already jogging towards the moving walkway a little ways down the hall. He glances over his
shoulder at Remus and smirks, but doesn’t answer. Remus follows, a bit slower.

Once Sirius gets there, he hops up to sit on the moving rail.

“Please don’t hurt yourself,” Remus says.

“I was never allowed to play on these things as a kid,” Sirius explains, now trying to wrangle
himself onto his feet.

“Well, yeah,” Remus huffs. “It’s dangerous.”

As if on cue, Sirius falls. Remus jolts forward to check on him, but he pops up a moment later,
laughing and shaking his hair out of his eyes.

“You are a liability,” Remus scolds, and Sirius laughs and hops onto the rail again.

“Listen,” Sirius holds tight onto the moving rail and tucks his feet under him, testing his balance. “I
was in airports a lot as a kid, and my mom was always trying to scare me out of being bad.”

“So now you’re being as bad as possible to make up for it.”

Sirius laughs. “Exactly.” Before Remus can think of something to respond with, Sirius straightens
up, balancing perfectly on the rail. “Aha!” he calls, holding his fists above his head.

“Very good,” Remus says. “Now get down from there.”

Sirius rolls his eyes and waits until he has reached the end of the rail before hopping off and
landing perfectly on his feet. “Alright,” he says. “Now you try.”

“Me?” Remus checks, and Sirius nods. “No way. I don’t think so.”

“Oh, come on,” Sirius says playfully. “I’ll hold on to you. I won’t let you fall.”

“I don’t think I would even be able to get up there,” Remus protests.

“I’ll help,” Sirius says.

Remus eyes the rail suspiciously, but after a moment, he sighs and sets his cane on the ground.
Sirius’s entire face brightens.

“Fine,” Remus says simply. “But if I fall, I’m suing you for everything you’re worth.”

“I respect the hustle,” Sirius says gleefully.

Remus sighs again and turns to face Sirius, his hands on the rail behind him. Then, before he can
talk himself out of it, he lifts himself up to sit on it, and immediately feels himself beginning to fall
backwards. “Shit,” he says, hands scrambling for purchase.

Before he falls, though, Sirius grabs him by the waist. Remus exhales a breath he didn’t know he
was holding and rests his hands on Sirius’s shoulders.

“This is so dumb,” he says.

“Fun, though,” Sirius returns, walking next to Remus on the unmoving side of the walkway.

“I guess.”

“Like a little roller coaster.”

“Sure,” Remus agrees with a shrug, “if roller coasters had none of the safety precautions and only a
small fraction of the fun.”
As he reaches the end of the walkway, Remus tries to hop down like Sirius did, but he lands
unsteadily and stumbles. Sirius catches him around the waist again with a breathy laugh, but they
both still stumble to the ground. Remus lands in a seated position, and Sirius lies down on his back,
still laughing.

Remus laughs too, and after a moment, he lies down next to Sirius with a sigh.

“I’m suing you,” he says quietly.

“I won’t even fight it,” Sirius says, just as quiet. “You’ll be rich beyond your wildest dreams.”

“Good, because I don’t know if my lawyer is any good. I met him in an airport.”

Sirius laughs even harder, an arm falling to rest across his stomach. A moment of silence passes
between them, and then Sirius sighs and shakes his head.

“What?” Remus asks, turning his head to look at Sirius with a smile.

“You said earlier that dating is hard for you, and I just…” Sirius shakes his head again and meets
Remus’s eyes. “That’s just so hard for me to believe.”

“What?” Remus repeats himself dumbly.

Sirius averts his gaze shyly, looking up at the ceiling. “Just, I mean… you’re so…” He laughs
again. “I’m going on this trip that I have been absolutely dreading, about to see a family I can’t
stand and haven’t spoken to in years, and this flight has been objectively horrible--I mean, all the
waiting, and then that landing was absolutely terrifying--and I should be stressed and, and totally
miserable. Why am I having so much fun?”

Remus mirrors Sirius and looks up at the ceiling. “I’m having fun, too,” he admits.

“I just can’t believe you could have a hard time dating when you’re…” Sirius shakes his head
again. “It’s so hard not to be into you.”

Remus blinks. Wait. What?

He knows Lily mentioned it earlier, but truth be told, Remus has not actually considered the
possibility that Sirius could be into men, let alone into him. They’re strangers. They met at an
airport, for god’s sake--although, they do live in the same city, and they don’t really feel like
strangers anymore--

“Sorry,” Sirius says when Remus doesn’t respond. “Wow, that was--yeah, I’m really tired, and I
have… no filter. I probably should have--”

“Sirius,” Remus interrupts. “Are you gay?” Clearly, he thinks vaguely, he is also too tired to have a
filter.

“I mean, I’m--well,” Sirius stammers. “I, sometimes? I don’t really think about gender, I--it doesn’t
really factor in. For me. Sorry, I thought--”

“Sirius.” Remus turns to look at him again with a smile that he can’t help. “Do I have to tell you to
stop apologizing now? I just didn’t know if you… swung that way.”

Sirius looks at Remus now, too, his shocked expression slowly morphing into a smile of
understanding. “And I thought I was being so obvious, too,” he says softly, scooting almost
imperceptibly closer to Remus. “Throwing myself at you.”

They’re so close now that Remus could probably kiss him. And he is reasonably sure that Sirius
would kiss him back.

“When do you get back to the city?” he asks instead, quietly, just loud and heavy enough to fill the
inches of space between them.

Sirius’s smile grows. “A week from Saturday.”

“No way,” Remus laughs. “Me too.”

“What time is your flight?”

“Nine.”

“In the morning?”

“Yes.”

“Me too!”

“Wait, really? British Airways out of Heathrow?”

“Yes!”

They beam at each other for a moment.

“Well when we’re back in New York,” Remus says slowly, “we should--”

“Go hiking,” Sirius nods.

“You suck,” Remus laughs, turning to look back at the ceiling, and he can feel Sirius’s breathy
laugh against his cheek.

“No, but really,” Sirius continues, more seriously now, “Um, would you, maybe--”

“Well, well, well!”

They both look up to find James approaching with a cheeky grin on his face. “What do we have
here?” He is carrying both of their bags and Remus’s cane, picked up from where they had been
discarded a few feet away.

“Potter,” Sirius says evenly, sitting up and fixing James with a dignified expression.

“Getting into some shenanigans?” James wiggles his eyebrows, and Sirius rolls his eyes.

“We fell.” Sirius stands and dusts off the front of his pants, then holds out a hand to help Remus
up, which Remus takes gratefully.

“Sure, sure,” James says, eyes flitting gleefully between the two of them.

“We did,” Sirius insists.

“I’m not doubting you.” James tosses Sirius his backpack and hands Remus his cane before setting
back off down the hall, still carrying the duffle bag.
“Where’s Lily?” Remus interjects, following after him. James grins.

“She’s with our stuff. Saving us a spot. Come on.”

When they get back to Lily, she is lying draped across four chairs, her head resting on her duffle
bag and feet dangling over the arm rest at the end of the row, book held aloft over her face.
James’s briefcase sits on the floor next to her. She is so deep into her book that she doesn’t notice
them approaching until a particularly loud laugh from James makes her eyes snap towards them.

“You weren’t answering your phone,” she says to Remus, sitting up and freeing up the seats on
either side of her. “So I sent James after you.”

“Sorry,” Remus says, settling in next to her. She rolls her eyes.

Sirius opens up his backpack, proudly displaying the snack selection, and James wiggles his
fingers like a cartoon villain before snagging a bag of chips and settling on Lily’s other side.
Surprisingly, Lily rests her head on James’s shoulder, and even more surprisingly, James doesn’t
seem surprised. Remus and Sirius share a pleased, bemused look.

The four of them sit companionably, with Lily reading, James and Sirius quietly discussing the
MLB draft, and Remus eating his Snickers bar. All the other passengers are acting similarly;
couples are slumped together in various states of rest, a man stands in the corner rocking a baby,
and the group of teenagers from the gate in New York are all lying on the ground, sweatshirts
balled up under their heads, playing some kind of game on their phones and occasionally lobbing
jokes and playful insults at each other.

When Remus finishes eating, he sighs. He’s still hungry, but he’s also kind of bored. He knows he
won’t be able to sleep in this uncomfortable chair, and he doesn’t much fancy trying his luck on
the ground. And he already finished his book on the plane, he remembers glumly.

“Hey.”

Remus looks up to see Sirius waggling a bag of peanut M&Ms at him, a questioning look on his
face. He purses his lips in thought for a moment before nodding. Sirius smiles and tosses them
over.

Eventually, Lily finishes her book and falls asleep on James’s shoulder. Sirius nabs James’s neck
pillow and lies on the floor, facing the ceiling with the pillow under his head, eyes closed and
headphones in. Remus steals the book off Lily’s lap. He’s not usually into science fiction, but once
he gets used to all the nonsense words and acquainted with the expansionist space empire that rules
the world of the book, he finds himself quite lost in it.

Just as he is about to find out how the protagonist of the story ended up alone on this ice planet,
Mary’s voice comes over the speaker again, announcing that it’s time to board the plane. By now,
everyone is so tired that almost no one speaks during the boarding process. Remus, for his part,
does not realize just how tired he is until he collapses into his seat next to Sirius--they didn’t even
discuss it this time, just automatically returned to the seats they were in during the first few hours
of the flight--and drops his duffle bag between his feet.

Sirius shoots him a small smile, and Remus shoots one back before fastening his seatbelt. He is
asleep before the plane has even finished its ascent.

His eyes blink open when he feels a nudge to his shoulder. He blinks a few extra times, his eyes
adjusting to the light now streaming in through the windows.
“Sorry to wake you,” a voice says as Remus’s eyes focus. Sirius looks like he’s trying not to smile.
“But we’re here. We’re getting off the plane.”

Remus looks around, his head still swimming with sleep. But Sirius appears to be right; all around
them, people are chatting idly, collecting their luggage. The plane has stopped moving.

“We’ve landed already?” Remus clarifies sleepily.

Sirius loses the battle with his smile and it spreads across his face. “Yes.”

“And I slept through the announcements and everything?”

“You did.”

“And breakfast?”

Sirius laughs and holds up something wrapped in a napkin, which he hands over to Remus. Remus
unwraps it to find what looks like a pain au chocolat.

“I ate the fruit and eggs,” Sirius admits. “But I thought you might want the, uh, the chocolate.
Promise me you'll eat a vegetable today, though.”

Remus grins. “Thanks, Sirius.”

Sirius shrugs bashfully and stands up, stretching leisurely before collecting his backpack from
under the seat. Remus scarfs down the pastry in only a couple of bites, then follows suit, grabbing
his duffle.

His brain is still a bit foggy from sleep. Or from not getting enough of it, he’s not really sure. How
long were we in the air? What time is it?

Sirius is saying something about London, and Remus realizes that, in his disoriented, half-asleep
state, he hasn’t been paying attention to a word he’s saying.

“London,” he repeats as they step past the gate and into the crowded seating area, then shakes his
head and places his bag on the ground to rub at his eyes. “I’m sorry, what was that? I’m still--I
wasn’t really listening.”

Sirius laughs good-naturedly. “Not a morning person?”

“Not at all,” Remus confirms. “You seem pretty chipper, though.” Sirius laughs again, and starts to
say something, but someone else’s voice interrupts.

“Remus!”

Remus looks in the direction of the voice to find Lily waving him over to her, wide awake and with
a phone pressed to her ear. He looks groggily back at Sirius. “I wonder where James is,” he says,
and Sirius laughs again.

“Remus, let’s gooooo,” Lily calls from across the room. Remus picks his bag up and takes a step
in her direction, but stops when he feels a gentle hand on his forearm.

Sirius’s hand lingers for a moment, but then he drops it and looks down. He opens his mouth to say
something, but then hesitates. Remus studies his face.

“What’s up?”
 Sirius inhales. “I want to see you again,” he says steadily. “If that’s--I mean, if you… also want
that.”

Remus blinks a few times, his grogginess clearing a bit. For a moment, he had forgotten that he has
only known Sirius for less than a day, that they have no way to get in contact with each other. For a
moment, he felt like Sirius had always been part of his life, and would be there when he gets back.

“Oh, right, no,” Remus says, and Sirius’s face drops. “I mean yes!” Remus corrects hastily. “I do
want that. Sorry, I’m tired. My words aren’t working yet.”

Sirius lets a small smile unfurl on his face, but before he can say anything, Remus feels a different
hand on his other arm.

“Remus, let’s go,” Lily scolds, pulling him by his elbow. “Marlene is outside. We’re keeping her
waiting.”

“I--I’m--” Remus stammers, glancing at Sirius. “I’m talking to Sirius.”

“We’re on the same flight back,” Lily says, still trying to pull him away. “You’ll see him in less
than two weeks.”

“I…” He looks at Sirius, who is slinging his backpack over his shoulder again, looking
devastatingly handsome, even with his messy hair and tired eyes. Maybe even more so.

“It’s fine,” Sirius says. “She’s right.”

“Two weeks,” Remus promises, scrambling to keep ahold of both his duffle bag and his cane as he
allows Lily to drag him away.

“Don’t miss the flight,” Sirius calls after them.

“I promise,” Remus manages, watching Sirius’s smile grow as Lily drags him out the door.

Chapter End Notes

i'll tell u right now that i am not writing marlene and dorcas's wedding (hit up my other
fic "take thee, idiot" if u want wedding content!) & that the next chapter takes place on
the day of the return trip. hoping to have it up next week but rest assured that it *will*
be up at some point even if life happens xoxo
 Flight BAW26
Chapter Notes

i may have been a little drunk when i wrote this (just now (yes i am still drunk)) but i
stand by it xx

See the end of the chapter for more notes

They are going to miss their flight.

Remus doesn’t know how this keeps happening. He and Lily are two of the most thorough
planners he knows, with Lily’s planning abilities bordering on neurotic--potentially obsessive-
compulsive--and yet this is the second flight in a row that they have somehow managed to be late
for.

He should have seen it coming when Lily’s alarm didn’t go off this morning, but he was too
distracted by his typical morning grogginess and Lily’s shrill demands that he hurry. But when
traffic was at a standstill due to an accident on the highway, Remus did start to worry. And the
guilt of knowing that Lily probably would have gotten out of the cab and walked if it wasn’t for his
knee didn’t help.

And then, in security, Remus’s bag was searched due to a “suspicious object” in his carry-on that
turned out to be--surprise!--his cane.

The security officer apologized profusely--a bit too profusely for Remus’s comfort, if he’s honest--
and sent them on their way, but the hiccup still put them even more behind schedule.

Boarding for their flight has already started, and it is set to take off in less than ten minutes.

“Stopped by security for your fucking cane,” Lily is muttering now as they move at an
uncomfortably fast pace towards their gate, which is, infuriatingly, halfway across the airport.

“I know,” Remus mutters back. “I’m sorry.”

Without slowing down, Lily turns her head to give him a bemused, alarmed kind of look. “What?
Why?”

“We’re going to miss our flight because of me,” Remus laments.

“We’re not going to miss our flight,” Lily returns fiercely. And then, a moment later, “and it’s not
because of you.”

“It is, though,” he insists. “My cane held us up at security, and when we were stuck in traffic for
three hours, we could have, like, gotten out and walked if it wasn’t for--”

“It’s not your fault,” Lily interrupts. “Stop acting like I’m gonna blame you for the fact that--ok,
like, it’s not on you that the people who built the world didn’t consult anyone with a disability.”
Remus is about to argue back, but Lily cuts him off before he can even begin. “Or anyone black, or
gay, or trans, or fat,” she lists, ticking them off on her fingers. “Or female, even. I mean, it’s
imperialism and racism and misogyny and eugenics all the way down, Remus, this isn’t news to
either of us. And don’t fucking argue with me, I’m not in the mood.”

So Remus doesn’t.

“We shouldn’t have gone out last night,” he says instead, and Lily groans.

“I know,” she says. “And I knew it last night, too. But it was our last day in London! What were
we gonna do, stay in?”

“We could have,” he argues, even though he knows that if Lily had suggested it last night he would
have thought she was crazy.

“But Marlene and Dorcas would have gone out without us anyway,” Lily points out, and she has a
point.

Since their wedding a week ago, Marlene and Dorcas have been celebrating nonstop. This is the
most time they have spent together in person since the beginning of their relationship, and after the
honeymoon, Marlene will be returning to New York for a month, so they have been making the
most of it.

And Remus and Lily were all too eager to oblige them in their celebrations. They went to every
London attraction and, Remus is sure, every pub, chippy, and tea shop within the city limits. They
went on day trips to Blackpool, to Wales, to Paris, and they stayed up late every night, talking and
laughing and drinking and celebrating Marlene and Dorcas’s relationship.

It was a great trip. Maybe the best of Remus’s life. But he would be lying if he said he didn’t think
of Sirius every day.

And now, they are going to miss their flight.

“It’s there,” Lily says suddenly, pointing ahead of them. “That’s our gate!” She picks up her pace
slightly, but not so much that Remus can’t conceivably keep up.

They get up to the gate just as a flight attendant is closing the door. "Wait!" Lily screeches,
breaking out into a run, and the flight attendant freezes, slowly lowering the velvet rope.

“Can I help you?” Remus hears the flight attendant ask from where Lily has now caught up to her.

“Please,” Lily begs, “we can’t miss this flight.”

“I’m sorry,” the flight attendant says, “but boarding for this flight is complete.”

“No,” Lily says, and Remus doesn’t think he’s ever heard such desperation in her voice. “You
don’t understand, we need to be on this flight.”

“I do understand,” the flight attendant says kindly, “and I really am sorry. I can help you get onto a
later flight, and I can probably even help you get your money back for these tickets, but this flight
is closed.”

“No,'' Lily says again as Remus approaches, and she sounds close to tears. “We need to be on this
flight. It’s very important that we get onto this flight. Isn’t there anything you can do? Anything?”

“I’m afraid not,'' the flight attendant says, and she actually does sound kind of sorry about it.

Remus puts a hand on Lily's back as he approaches, and she immediately launches herself into his
arms.
“What are we going to do?” she asks desperately, as if Remus could ever come up with an angle
that Lily Evans hasn’t considered.

“Get another flight, I guess,'' Remus says, feeling like he might cry too.

“No,” she wails, now crying in earnest, “what are we going to do about James?”

His hands fly up to wrap around her, and his forgotten cane clatters to the floor. The flight
attendant looks up, surprised. As they make eye contact, he recognizes her as Mary, the attendant
from the previous flight.

“Has the plane started taxiing yet?” he asks, figuring it can’t hurt to try one more thing.

Mary’s eyes flick from Remus, to Lily, to the cane on the floor, then back to Remus’s face.
“You’re the guy who…” She shakes her head slowly, and then she closes her eyes and chuckles
softly. “Oh my god,” she says after a moment, and her voice has completely changed, as if she has
dropped her professional demeanor entirely. “I can’t believe I’m about to do this,” she mumbles as
she drops the rope and walks behind the desk. “I could get in so much trouble.”

“Do what?” Remus asks, and Lily has stopped crying and is now looking curiously at Mary,
though she is still grabbing onto Remus for dear life.

“Please have a seat,'' Mary says, her professional demeanor having returned, gesturing to the two
closest seats.

“Will we get on the flight?” Lily asks.

“Have a seat,” Mary says again, lifting a walkie talkie to her lips. “Flight BAW26,” she says,
“please stand by.” A voice comes immediately through the walkie talkie, but Remus can’t make
out what it says.

“What is going on?” Lily demands. Mary just raises an eyebrow at her as she continues her
conversation with the person on the other end of the walkie talkie. But when Lily doesn't sit down,
Mary sighs.

“I recognized you,'' she says, looking at Remus now. “From two weeks ago, yeah? There are a
couple of passengers on this flight who asked me to… keep an eye out for the two of you. And
let’s just say it will be very worth my while to let you two on the plane.”

“They’re paying you?!” Lily demands, and Mary laughs.

“They’re not,” Mary says. “But we have a betting pool. You won me some money last time.” She
points to Lily, who blushes. A staticky voice comes through the walkie talkie again, and Mary lifts
it to her mouth. “Let me check,” she says before turning back to Remus and Lily. “Any checked
bags?”

“No,” Remus says.

“No,” Mary repeats, followed by another staticky bit of mumbling from her walkie. “We haven’t
started taxiing,” she says. “The door isn’t even closed.” More mumbling. “Well, has it been
verified by dispatch yet?” This time, Remus hears a reluctant “no” through the static. “Then the
paperwork can be redone,” Mary says. There is a pause, then another staticky mumble. “I know for
a fact that Arthur won’t mind an extra ten minutes.” A longer pause, then another mumble, and a
triumphant smile on Mary's face. “Thank you,” she says sweetly into the walkie talkie before
putting it down. She turns her attention back to Remus and Lily. “Alright,” she says, “let’s go.”
“Really?” Lily asks as they both follow Mary through the gate, which she closes behind her.

“Yes,” Mary says. “And you’re welcome.”

“You are our hero,” Remus supplies, and Mary gives him a wry smile over her shoulder.

“Yes,” she agrees. “I suppose I am.”

By the time they step onto the plane, everyone is already seated with their seatbelts on. Mary
nudges them forward to close the door behind them, then hisses, “go sit,” and disappears into the
nose of the plane.

Remus and Lily look at each other with uncertainty. Remus knows they are both thinking about
how they are going to find Sirius and James when they are not allowed to follow Mary into the
first class cabin.

What do we do now? Remus asks her with his eyes, and she shrugs.

I don’t know.

A moment later, the curtain to the first class cabin is whipped back, and standing in its place is
James, orange travel pillow around his neck, disbelieving look on his face, hair tousled like he has
been nervously running his hands through it all morning.

“Lily?” he asks, pushing his glasses up his nose as his face breaks out into a smile.

“James!” Lily drops her bag in the middle of the aisle and launches herself at him. He meets her
halfway, hugging her around her waist and lifting her into the air. She wraps her arms around his
neck and half-laughs, half-cries into a passionate kiss.

Remus hardly notices. Because standing right behind James, looking casual and unbothered and
devastating and a little bit like he’s just seen a ghost, is Sirius.

“Hi,” Remus says, hiking his bag higher on his shoulder.

“Hey,” Sirius replies. “Want me to get that?”

Remus shakes his head. “I’m good.”

“Alright.”

They stare at each other for a moment. “How was,” Remus starts, at the same time that Sirius says,
“Do you,” and then they both break off into a laugh.

“You first,” Remus says.

“I was just going to ask,” Sirius says slowly, “if you wanted to come sit with me.”

Remus glances at Lily and James, who are still embracing. “James won’t mind?” he asks.

“Doubt it,” Sirius laughs.

But he needn’t have speculated, because his question is answered a moment later by Lily. “James is
coming with me,” Lily asserts, grabbing James by the hand and dragging him towards the back of
the plane. James gives them a little wave with the hand that isn’t clasped in Lily’s.
“Great to see you!” he calls out to Remus as he gets dragged away.

“I guess that answers that question,” Remus says, following Sirius through the curtain, nodding his
thanks as Sirius holds it open for him.

“Thank god you showed up,” Sirius says as they approach their seats. “James wouldn’t shut up
about Lily when we were in london. It would have been an awful flight. I would have pulled my
hair out.”

“I’m really relieved too,” Remus says as he sits. “I really didn’t want to have to ride coach.” He
stretches his legs out in front of him and lets out a satisfied sigh in demonstration. Sirius laughs.

“Yeah, well.” Sirius sits down in the seat next to him. “The amenities are priceless.”

Remus finally looks at Sirius fully to take him in. He’s wearing that leather jacket again, over a
white T-shirt, and his hair is pulled back, showing off his cheekbones and jawline. “Yeah,” he says
softly, “the amenities.”

Sirius smiles. “How was London?” he asks.

“Oh, it was lovely.” Remus shuts his eyes, wistfully remembering the past two weeks. “Every bit
as lovely as I expected it to be and more. If I never leave the US again, I'll be happy I got to see
London.”

“Have you ever left the country before?” Sirius asks.

“Well now I’ve been to five countries,” Remus points out proudly. “The US, England, Scotland,
France, and of course, Canada.”

“Wow.” Sirius lets out a low whistle. “Well I’m glad it lived up to the hype.”

“It really did.”

“And the wedding was good?” Sirius checks. “No runaway brides or anything?”

“No,” Remus waves him off. “They’re soulmates.”

“I thought you didn’t believe in that stuff.”

Remus shrugs. “I don’t, really. But I do believe in two people liking each other enough to make it
work. I believe that Marlene and Dorcas will be together forever.”

Sirius thinks for a moment. “That’s even nicer, I think.”

“It’s more real,” Remus offers. “Than a rom-com, I mean.”

“Yeah,” Sirius agrees with a smile. “That’s what makes it nicer.”

As the plane starts to taxi away from the gate, a voice comes over the speaker to give instructions
and Mary steps into the cabin to do her standard demonstration of the plane’s evacuation
procedures. Sirius closes his eyes and leans his head back again, gripping onto the armrests for
takeoff. Remus hesitates for a moment, then slips his hand into Sirius’s. Sirius doesn’t open his
eyes, but he does intertwine his fingers with Remus’s and give his hand a little squeeze.

When they are well in the air, Remus gives Sirius’s hand another squeeze, and Sirius lets go.
“Thanks,” he mutters, opening his eyes.

“Course,” Remus says. Sirius takes a few deep breaths and a sip of water, then shoots Remus a
tentative smile. Remus smiles back. “So how was your London trip?”

Sirius’s smile grows.

“Yeah?” Remus asks excitedly, and Sirius nods.

“I won,” he says simply. “My parents can suck it.”

“And your brother?” Remus prods.

Sirius shrugs. “Still a douche. He can suck it too.”

Damn. “I’m sorry.”

“It’s ok.”

“So you’re like,” Remus starts playfully, “filthy fucking rich now?”

Sirius grins. “I was filthy fucking rich before.” Remus rolls his eyes.

“So modest.”

“You asked!”

“It’s in poor taste,” Remus teases. “Bragging about your wealth to a lowly book editor? How do
you think that makes me feel?”

“I’m the reason you’re sitting in first class,” Sirius reminds him. “And if that’s not enough for you,
I’ll buy you a Snickers bar.”

“Not good enough,” Remus retorts. “I want two S nickers bars.”

“I think that can be arranged,” Sirius laughs.

“I um,” Remus clears his throat, suddenly nervous. “I really was excited to see you, though.”

“Yeah?” Sirius asks, smiling when Remus nods. “Me too.”

“I wanted to see you almost as badly as Lily wanted to see James.”

Sirius laughs. “I still can’t believe Lily wanted to see James.”

“She wouldn’t stop talking about him the whole trip!” Remus exclaims. “James this, James that,
and isn’t he so annoying, and doesn’t he just get on your nerves, and isn’t the way he scrunches up
his nose when he pushes his glasses up so darn cute, Remus?” Sirius laughs, and Remus shakes his
head. “And then when it looked like we weren’t going to get on the flight, she was really upset.
I’ve almost never seen her crack like that. Not in public, anyway.”

“So romantic,” Sirius says wistfully, then looks at Remus with a smirk. “Running through the
airport to tell someone how you feel about them.” Remus laughs.

“Yeah, well. It’s one of my favorite tropes, but I have to admit, I didn’t think I would ever see it
happen in real life.”
“I watched that movie you told me about,” Sirius admits. Remus cocks his head curiously.

“Which one?”

“She’s Out Of My League.”

“Oh yeah? Did you like it?”

Sirius shrugs. “Not really. But I liked the scene you told me about. Where he tells his whole family
to go fuck themselves.” Remus laughs at that.

“I can see why that would be something you’d like.”

“And I watched one of the other ones you mentioned, too.”

“Which one?”

“The Wedding Singer.”

“Oh, that’s a really good movie,” Remus says. “I’ll be upset if you didn’t like that one.”

“I did like it,” Sirius admits. “And I see what you mean. About all of those movies following the
same form.”

“You only watched two,” Remus points out.

Sirius gives him an unimpressed look. “I’ve seen other romantic comedies before, Remus. But
yeah, they all end the same way.”

“The big declaration that solves everything,” Remus says grandly.

“And,” Sirius adds, “the kiss.”

“Of course,” Remus nods. “The kiss. The kiss. Well, I’m glad Lily and James got their perfect rom-
com ending.”

“A bit different in person, though, isn’t it?” Sirius asks. “I mean, just standing there making out in
the middle of the plane, everyone staring at them. A bit more uncomfortable without the romantic
music in the background.” Remus snorts.

“It’s like you said, though. It’s a feeling. The music was probably happening in their heads.”

“Yeah,” Sirius agrees. “And they’re probably in the bathroom again as we speak.”

Remus’s snort turns into a full-on guffaw. “That’s the part they don’t show you in the movies,” he
says.

They both laugh for a minute, and when Sirius speaks again, he sounds quieter, more earnest. “I
thought you missed the flight,” he says. “I didn’t think I was going to… get to see you again.”

“I know," says Remus, turning in his seat to face Sirius and leaning in slightly. “I was kicking
myself for not, like, getting your number or something.”

“Me too.” Sirius opens his mouth to say something else, then shuts it.

“What is it?”
Sirius seems to contemplate something for a moment, then he turns in his seat and leans towards
Remus, too. “I like you,” he says firmly. “Kind of a lot. And I would like to see you again. On
purpose. For non-plane-related reasons.”

“Yeah,” Remus agrees, his stomach fluttering. “Me too.” Sirius searches his face for a moment,
before speaking again.

“Alright,” he says. “That was my big declaration. I also--and you can say no, of course, but in a
rom-com, a declaration like that would be followed by a kiss.”

Remus rolls his eyes. “But this isn’t a rom-com, Sirius.”

“And that’s not an answer, Sirius points out. And he’s right, it’s not. “Listen,” he says a moment
later. “What if the plane crashes?”

“Is this you asking to hold my hand?” Remus teases.

“No,” Sirius shakes his head. “Although, you know, I wouldn’t say no to that. But no.” He shifts
closer to Remus. “What if the plane seems like it’s about to crash, and Mary comes over the
speaker, like, oh no, you guys, the plane is crashing, every man for himself.”

“Excellent Mary impression,” Remus laughs. “Spot on.”

“Thank you.” Sirius gives him a nod of allowance and takes a deep breath. “If the plane does--
well, I don’t want to die without having kissed you.”

Remus throws his head back and laughs out loud, and Sirius looks pleased. “That’s a little
dramatic, don’t you think?”

Sirius shrugs. “Like Lily said, there’s always a chance.”

“Well in the event that something like that happens,” Remus says, humoring him, “we can just kiss
then.”

“No we can’t,” Sirius points out. “We’ll be wearing oxygen masks.”

“We’ll just kiss before we put them on.”

Sirius shifts closer. “And risk our lives?”

Remus does, too. “Well that’s romantic, isn’t it? Risking your life to get the guy?”

Sirius takes Remus's hand on the armrest between them, stroking a thumb over his knuckles. “But
shirking aircraft safety in order to do so? Mary would kill us before we hit the ground.”

“That’s true,” Remus gives him, leaning in closer still. “And you’d probably be freaking out too
much to perform, anyway.”

“Right,” Sirius says softly, his hand now traveling up Remus's arm. “I’d probably be sick.”

“It won’t happen, anyway,” Remus says. “I mean, what are the odds?”

“One in eleven million,” Sirius answers immediately. “Give or take.” His hand is now on the side
of Remus's neck.

“So we don’t need to worry about it anyway,” Remus continues. “We’ll have plenty of time to kiss
 in New York.”

“So you do want to kiss me?” Sirius clarifies.

“Of course I do,” Remus says. “I just don’t want to feed into your delusions about the plane
crashing--”

Sirius closes the centimeter of space between their lips, and the kiss shuts Remus up immediately
and entirely as his hands fly up to grip the lapels of Sirius's leather jacket.

“Like a movie," Sirius murmurs as he pulls away, just barely, eyes still closed, hand on Remus's
jaw, their noses still slotted against each other.

“No,” Remus says. “Better.” And he kisses him again.

Chapter End Notes

this concludes the main story but i might add an epilogue ??? from sirius's pov????? so
lmk if u are interested
 Two Years Later
Chapter Notes

hey hello hi

wow ok so i know i said i was gonna post this like a year ago but in my defense i had a
career change and then i was traveling and then i was really very sick for really quite a
long time and then i was traveling again and then i was sick again and now here i am
to finally deliver on my promise of an epilogue xx

See the end of the chapter for more notes

— Two Years Later —

The first thing Sirius notices when he and Remus finally arrive at the gate, out of breath and nearly
out of time, is that James is holding a book open in his lap. He drops his bag at James’s feet.

“Are you reading?”

James looks up slowly from his book, marking his page with a finger. “Nice of you to join us. The
plane only starts boarding in,” he glances at his watch, “oh, three minutes.”

“We got here,” Remus defends. He puts his own carry-on in the seat next to Lily -- who, unlike
James, doesn’t deign to look up from her book -- and stretches his arms over his head, getting ready
to be cooped up on a plane all night.

“Barely,” Lily snorts, flipping a page.

Sirius makes the very difficult and brave decision to not look at the strip of skin revealed by
Remus’s stretching and keeps his eyes on James. “You can read?”

“Shut up,” James says. “I’m a lawyer. I read.”

“You used to listen to your law school textbooks on the treadmill,” Sirius reminds him.

“Fatherhood changes you,” James says sagely, even though the baby hasn’t been born yet, and
won’t be for several months.

He doesn’t say it, but Sirius can’t imagine fatherhood changing James. He thinks, really, that
fatherhood will suit his best friend quite well. Despite all the changes in his life over the past year,
he’s the same James Potter he has always been: steadfast and loyal and enthusiastic, the kind of
guy who makes all his appointments on time and learns the life story of whoever is standing behind
him in line at the grocery store. It’s just that now he also does things like ride coach. And read for
fun, apparently.

Although, Sirius supposes, the James Potter he knew in law school never would have gotten
married in Vegas to someone he’d known for less than a year. But that happened before the
pregnancy, so fatherhood probably can’t be blamed.

Sirius still isn’t entirely sure how it happened; James and Lily were on a cross-country road trip --
which, according to Remus, was as out of character for Lily as it was for James -- and they were
both having an awful time. Fighting like dogs, to hear James tell it. And then suddenly, after a
week of silence due to shoddy phone signal and inconsistent access to WiFi, they were asking
Remus and Sirius to meet them in Vegas.

By the time they got there, worried and confused after not hearing from their best friends for a
week, James and Lily were married.

Lily slams her book shut. “I told you I would finish this one too fast,” she accuses James. “Look
how short it is.” She flaps the thin volume in his face for emphasis.

James closes his own book with more decorum. “Yes, well, I may have had an ulterior motive.” He
snatches the book out of her hand mid-flap and drops his own onto her lap. “Now I can read it,” he
says, “and we can talk about it on the way home.”

Lily picks up James’s book, eyeing it for a moment. “Good idea.” She settles back into her seat. “I
knew there was a reason I liked you, Potter.”

James shushes her, eyes already skimming the first page. “Let me read. You would not shut up
about this book, and I have been so patient.”

Sirius catches a better glimpse of the cover. “You’re reading science fiction?” The wonders never
cease.

Apparently, Remus catches a glimpse, too. “Oh, I read that book. It’s really good,” he tells Sirius.

“That’s an understatement,” mutters Lily.

“No spoilers,” James hisses desperately.

“You already know it’s really good, James,” Lily tuts. “That’s not a spoiler.”

Sirius tunes out their bickering and addresses Remus. “You read science fiction?” You think you
know someone…

Remus shrugs. “It’s more romance than sci-fi. The sci-fi is the secondary plot.” He ponders for a
moment. “Well, it’s the setting, really.”

“Is it gay?” Sirius wonders.

“Of course,” Remus replies. “You think I’d read a straight romance?”

“You do for work all the time.”

“Yeah, but for fun?”

“Emily Henry,” Sirius counters.

Remus narrows his eyes and points a finger at Sirius’s chest. “She’s a special case and you know
it.”

“Let me read,” James repeats angrily. Remus rolls his eyes and unzips his carry-on to stash his and
Sirius’s passports away.
Sirius supposes he can’t blame James for being settled. He’s been feeling pretty settled himself,
lately. And, much to his amazement, he has found that he rather likes it.

He likes having clean towels and books on the coffee table. He likes having a tall, handsome man
on his couch when he comes home from work, asking about his day and making him laugh. He
likes that he never has to choose what to have for dinner, because Remus usually has a very strong
opinion. He likes that Remus packed for both of them for this trip, just to be nice.

Remus is nice.

It feels like a woefully inadequate descriptor.

Remus sits in the chair next to Lily, looking through his bag to make sure everything they need is
there. It is, of course, because Remus doesn’t forget things like phone chargers and toothbrushes.
He’s very competent at packing. Which is a silly thing to like about someone, Sirius knows --
especially since he himself is well-traveled and pretty competent at packing -- but he likes the way
Remus does it.

“Hey.” Sirius nudges Remus’s shoe with his own, just to make him look up.

Remus does, offering him a smile. “Hey.” And then he hands him something he pulled out of the
bag -- a bottle of water and a small pill.

“Thanks.” Sirius takes it.

When the flight attendant calls first class up to board the plane, Remus stands up, picking up his
bag.

Lily finally looks up from her book. “Have fun eating caviar and entertaining the Queen,” she says.
“Or whatever it is you do in the rich asshole seats.”

“I have a disability,” Remus points out in mock offense.

“And you’re an inspiration to us all,” Sirius quips, nudging Remus forward to board the plane. “See
you in London,” he calls over his shoulder at Lily and James.

The trip was James’s idea. To mark an anniversary, of sorts: two years since the four of them met
on their way to London. Two years since Sirius won the case against his family, and two years
since Dorcas and Marlene’s wedding. The idea was also driven, in some small part, by the
knowledge that it will be the last time James and Lily are on a plane for a while.

As he stands in line with Remus, waiting to board the plane, something occurs to Sirius. He stops
in his tracks.

“I can’t believe I’ve never thought of this before.”

Remus looks over his shoulder at Sirius. “What?”

“Die Hard 2.”

Remus raises an eyebrow. “You’ve never thought about Die Hard 2,” he clarifies drily, probably
because he remembers being forced, very much against his will, to watch that movie with Sirius on
New Year’s Eve.

Sirius shakes his head and catches up to Remus. “Airport chase.”

Remus laughs. “Oh my god, you’re right. Now I feel kind of bad about calling it just ok.”

“You should feel bad about that,” Sirius says.

Remus hums noncommittally, then his steps falter a bit. Sirius wonders if it’s his knee acting up,
and panics briefly because his cane is in their checked bag, but then he sees the look on Remus’s
face -- some combination of amusement and dread -- and curiosity wins over panic.

“What?”

“I thought of another plane movie,” Remus says reluctantly.

“Well?” Sirius prods.

Remus doesn’t answer right away. “I kind of don’t want to tell you,” he admits after a few
moments.

“Why not?”

“Because we’re about to get on a plane.”

“Remus,” Sirius implores. “You have to tell me.”

“With your flying anxiety?” Remus scoffs. “I don’t think so.”

“First of all,” Sirius starts, “I thought we agreed to refer to my plane anxiety as planic attacks--”

“I think we tabled that discussion,” Remus cuts in.

“--and second of all,” Sirius continues, “you not telling me is filling me with a new and exciting
kind of anxiety.”

“I know how you love to try new things,” Remus drawls.

“Remus,” Sirius pleads.

There are only a few more moments of silence before Remus gives in. “Final Destination,” he
says finally.

Sirius gasps. “Oh, you’re right. You should not have told me that.”

Remus throws his arms up in exasperation. “I knew it would freak you out.”

“No, not because of my planic attacks--”

“Sirius.”

“--but because we are about to have this fight again.”

Remus looks confused, then his expression clears and he rolls his eyes. “Final Destination 7--”

“Is not better than the first one,” Sirius insists in the cadence of someone who is repeating himself
for the thousandth time, which he is.

“I like when things come full circle!”

When they reach the entrance to the plane, still bickering about the Final Destination franchise,
Sirius holds out his boarding pass to the flight attendant so she can direct them toward their seats.
He’s so busy watching Remus laugh at something he said that it takes him a moment to notice that
the flight attendant hasn’t taken the ticket from his hand.

“It’s you!”

Sirius looks at her, startled, and she does look vaguely familiar, but he can’t place her, and she’s
looking at Remus, anyway.

Remus, whose eyes are widening. “No way,” he says. “Mary.”

And then Sirius does recognize her -- as the same flight attendant who told him when Remus and
Lily got on the plane home two years ago.

“I can’t believe this,” Mary says ecstatically. “You’re still together.”

“We are,” Remus says.

“Well, you’d better invite me to the wedding!” She finally seems to notice Sirius’s boarding pass,
and she takes it, directing them toward their seats.

“Have a nice flight! Enjoy your trip!”

“You too,” Sirius says, and Mary gives him a funny look.

“Sorry,” Remus says, steering him away. “He’s just nervous about the flying. He gets planic
attacks.”

They find their seats and get comfortable just before the Xanax Sirius took at the gate knocks him
out. When he wakes up again, they are in the sky -- Sirius doesn’t think about it -- and Remus is
watching 27 Dresses.

“I love this movie,” Sirius admits groggily. Remus looks at him funny.

“Really?”

“Yeah,” Sirius shrugs. “Don’t you?”

“Well, I mean, of course I do. But I’m surprised you do.”

“I like rom-coms,” Sirius defends.

“You like action movies and horror movies,” Remus corrects him. “You tolerate rom-coms,
because I like them. Which I do appreciate, by the way.”

“No.” Sirius shakes his head, then tilts it to the side, half-conceding the point. “I mean, yes, I like
action movies. I have trouble paying attention when the whole movie is just... conversations.”

“I know,” Remus laughs fondly.

“But I like some rom-coms,” Sirius continues. Remus still looks unsure. “I like The Wedding
Singer.”

“And 27 Dresses,” Remus adds.

“Yeah,” Sirius nods. “This one is good.”

“You like wedding movies,” Remus decides.

Sirius shrugs again. “I like weddings.”

“You’re a romantic,” Remus teases, “deep down.”

“No,” Sirius corrects, “I’m a romantic right up top. I have never pretended not to be a romantic.
The only reason I don’t shower you with compliments and gifts and adoration every moment of
every day is because I think you would combust from embarrassment.” Remus blushes a little, and
Sirius laughs. “See! You couldn’t handle it.”

“I could handle it,” Remus defends haughtily. “I like romance.” And then, after a moment. “I love
The Wedding Singer.”

Sirius takes Remus’s hand then. Not because he’s thinking about falling out of the sky, but because
he wants to hold his hand.

They watch for a while in silence. Sirius doesn’t know how long he was asleep and he doesn’t
fancy checking, but it’s dark on the plane, and quiet. The window covers are all down, and the
passengers Sirius can see are all sleeping, or at least have their eyes closed and headphones in.
Onscreen, there is a wedding happening.

“Would you ever want to do that?” Sirius asks suddenly.

Remus looks at him. “Get married?”

“Yeah.” Sirius has been thinking about it since what Mary said. Since Vegas, really.

Since longer than that, if he’s honest.

Remus turns in his seat to face Sirius more fully. The look on his face is unreadable. “Are you
proposing to me right now?”

“No, no, I just--” he cuts himself off. “Maybe?” Sirius turns in his seat, too, mirroring Remus. “I
had never thought about it until recently because-- well, I never saw myself getting married, my
parents always had a shitty marriage, and I honestly never saw myself having, um, this kind of
relationship.” He’s rambling. Wrap it up, Black. “And so I’d never thought about it until…” He
gestures between himself and Remus. “And I was, I guess I was just wondering if you’d… thought
about it,” he finishes lamely.

Remus considers him for a moment. “I’ve thought about it,” he says softly.

Sirius is more nervous, he thinks, than he should be. He decides to blame the planic attacks. “And
what have you…” He clears his throat, “thought about it?”

“I don’t know if I’d want to get married,” Remus says thoughtfully. “But if I ever did,” he
squeezes Sirius’s hand where he still holds it between them, “I’d like it to be to you.”

“Me too,” Sirius says quickly, relieved. “I don’t need to marry you to make that kind of
commitment to you, but I do want…” Suddenly, he’s embarrassed. Both at the nature of the
conversation, and the fact that they’re having it out in the open like this. Even with the relative
privacy afforded to them by first class and the background noises created by the plane. He clears
his throat again and lowers his voice. “To, you know, make that commitment to you.”

Remus seems to have no such anxiety, but leans toward Sirius anyway. To hear him better, or just
 to get closer. “What do you mean?”

“I mean, I don’t know if I want to get married, or have kids, or any of that stuff, but I do know
you’re it for me.” He looks down at their intertwined hands and starts playing with Remus’s
fingers. “I know I’m… yours. You have me. Permanently.” Maybe it’s the fact that they’re miles in
the air and could drop out of the sky at any second, but Sirius suddenly feels like this needs to be
done, right now. “I guess I’m… asking you to be mine in the same way.”

“I am,” Remus says immediately. Sirius looks back up and meets Remus’s eyes. “Of course I am.”
His eyebrows are drawn together, his expression intense and vulnerable. “You have me, too.
Permanently.” Sirius can’t keep looking at him cracked wide open like this, so he leans over and
kisses him.

They land safely. That time, and every time after that.

Chapter End Notes

this was a long time coming but i hope it was worth the wait! my sincere thanks to
everyone who has left comments -- i'm not so great at keeping up with them, but i do
read every single one and they make me feel extremely warm and fuzzy inside so
thank you so much to all who felt compelled to share their thoughts on this little story
x

Please drop by the archive and comment to let the author know if you enjoyed their work!