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Chapter Text

Sirius could see his brother’s breathing start to settle as the plane landed in their new home. It had been a couple of long and awful days for the Black brothers given the fact that their mother had been taken away and their father had gone to god knows where they had to move in with the only adult in their family who wasn’t a complete lunatic, that meant uncle Alphard but that also meant moving to the middle of nowhere. Sirius wasn’t complaining he liked Uncle Alphard, he had always enjoyed the gifts that Alphard sent him on his birthdays and he was also looking forward to the fresh air and rainy days, but above it all he was relieved to be far away from their parents. Regulus on the other hand, did not seem to share the same enthusiasm, he was having a hard time leaving New York, he wasn’t particularly popular there but at least he blended into the sea of people the Big Apple contained, here he would stick out, he knew he would, and when they found out their secret it would be so much worse. In small towns, gossip travels fast and you know the saying, a small town is a vast hell.

“What a shithole” Regulus grimaced at the sight.

“It could be worse,” Sirius said as they were looking for their uncle in the airport lobby.

“We could’ve stayed home,” Regulus said with a little crack in his voice as he said this.

“No, we couldn’t” Sirius gave a little squeeze to Regulus’ shoulder as he located Alphard.

Alphard jumped to meet them and hugged them at the same time.

“Hey!! How was the flight?”

“Uneventful” Reggie said as he broke the hug first.

“Well, let’s go get some food I bet you guys are starving” They started walking towards the parking lot “I have a little surprise I want to show you when we get home”

“Not another family surprise” Regulus whispered into Sirius’ ear.

Sirius didn’t say anything because well Alphard was trying really hard, also he didn’t have any children and he never married so the man must feel really strange getting not one but two teenagers to take care of so suddenly. He probably didn’t know how to win them over after not seeing them since they were literal children so giving them presents and surprises looked like a safe route to continue their relationship, not that this situation could be in any way pleasant but he was trying his best.

When they got to the house there was a red truck, a Chevy from the 50’s? 60’s? It was…

“It’s yours, you’ll have to share for a while then we can look for something else”

“You’re kidding! I love it” Sirius said as he walked towards the truck, he turned around to see Alphard's face light up. Maybe this place isn’t so bad.

“Thank god for generational wealth because if I had to share a bedroom with you I would have killed myself,” Regulus said as Sirius tried to find his lucky shirt in one of the many mini mountains of clothes scattered throughout the room.

“Shut up and help me look” Sirius was sure it was here, he couldn’t have left it at home, he would have to go back and get it, there was no way in hell he could go to his first day at school-

“Idiot” Regulus said as he tossed Sirius his dearest shirt. “We’re gonna be late, come on!”

“We’re not gonna be late, there’s no traffic here.” Sirius said as he put on a cozy jacket over the “Queen” band shirt.

They were in fact late and lost.

“How come you’re the one driving when you don’t even know where the school is?!” Regulus kept growing restless because getting late meant they would ask why he was late and that meant being perceived and right now he did not want to be perceived by these people.

“Ok! Ok!!! I think I see it now stop whining!!”

They both started running to their respective classrooms or at least Regulus did because Sirius’ sense of direction was a total disgrace. He decided to skip first period, maybe he could write and doodle a little something, yeah that could be nice-

“Hey you’re the new kid right?” said a girl with white blonde hair and the kindest smile Sirius had ever seen in a stranger.

“Uhm yeah, hi”

“I’m Pandora, where were you heading?”

“Sirius, um I actually have no idea, I need to get to 601B?”

“I can take you there! I was actually looking for you, they asked me to be your guide this week and your brother will get Evan who’s coincidentally my brother” she chuckled.

“Oh that’s nice, thank you.”

They got in and Sirius had to apologize for the tardiness but given the fact that he was new, it was soon forgotten and luckily, he got to sit beside Pandora for the first period.

The cafeteria was all packed when they got there because Pandora wanted to show Sirius where his next classes took place so he wouldn’t get lost, again.

“We can sit with Evan he won’t mind.” she said as she sat next to her brother “Hi guys, you must be Regulus right? Nice to meet you I’m Pandora. Welcome!”

“Hi” said Reg and he immediately turned to Sirius with pleading eyes. This is my table LEAVE.

Sirius just rolled his eyes, what was he to do? Be rude and leave the only two people he knew in here, fat chance. So he sat beside Pandora and smiled at everyone there while he introduced himself.

It was a funny-looking group starting with Pandora and Evan that were really nice and extroverted in a weird and unapologetic way which was in fact very refreshing. Following Reggie who was throwing daggers with his eyes at his dear brother, then Barty who looked kind of lost in Reggie's eyes if Sirius said so himself so he would have to keep an eye on that and last but not least a kid named Peter joined them a few moments after they had all introduced themselves.

“Hi, I’m Peter” he sat beside Sirius.

“He’s in our year” said Pandora biting a baby carrot.

As Sirius turned to look at Peter he saw a group of very attractive people walking into the cafeteria. “Hi Peter, Sirius Black and that’s my brother Regulus” Regulus nodded and kept on talking with Evan. Sirius pointed with his chin to the door. “Um, what about them?”

“Oh, those are the Lupins, they are the adoptive children of Doctor Frank, who may I add might have just saved my little brother’s life that one time, no but seriously they are like celebrities here but no one bothers them too much” Sirius’ gaze rested on the tallest of them, he had soft curly cinnamon hair with hazel eyes and pretty thick eyebrows and freckles all over his soft pale and gorgeous face. Not that Sirius was interested in any way, speaking as a completely objective third-party observer with absolutely no personal interest in the matter the cinnamon-looking boy was objectively the cutest one of the bunch. “We have Dorcas and Lily, rumor has it that they modeled for Victoria's Secret, next we've got James and Marlene, they're twins, and finally Remus”

"And what's their deal?"

"Oh well they kind of think they're better than everyone so they  just keep to themselves most of the time and as I said they're not related well except for James and Marlene who are the most friendly individuals of the bunch in my very humble opinion"

Sirius felt a string of electricity cursing through his spine as he locked eyes with Remus, the other boy looked at him with a little frown and eyes that made you want to get lost in them and drown.

Changing schools in the middle of the semester was not the smoothest way to be the new kids in town without turning many looks, especially in a town so small. Sirius was grateful for the Rosier siblings because without them he and Reggie would’ve isolated from everyone he knew they would have. Sadly Pandora did not have lab at the same class with him so Sirius went inside feeling a little out of place for the first time ever since he got to the school. The teacher sent him to the remaining table without a partner and to Sirius’ surprise it was none other than Remus Lupin. So what? He made a mental note of his name and what about it?! He just wanted to have the entire school context for educational purposes obviously.

As he walked towards the mysterious boy he noticed how stiff and unfriendly his whole demeanor turned. Sirius sat down next to Remus and gave him a small smile. It didn’t help. This guy is so weird, not even a hello? Fine, be that way I guess.

Sirius could feel the stern gaze and utter repulsion from the man next to him no doubt about that since he had felt those same things from his parents his entire life, but well this made no sense at all, the guy didn’t know him so why was he giving Sirius such a hard time? The bell rang and Sirius watched Remus Lupin, the unfriendliest person he had ever met, leave the room with a hurried stride. Peter arrived at his side because apparently, he was also in the same class.

“What did you do to him?” He said as he giggled a little.

“I didn’t do anything!!” So he’s not this way all the time?

“Don’t worry about it they are sort of weird anyways.”

“Yeah” Sirius said, unable to understand what had just happened. He hadn’t even said a word to the man and he just decided that he hated him??? What was his problem???

Opening the door of the administration office Sirius stumbled upon none other than the man of the hour, Lupin, Sirius thought I mean he could decide to hate me but not before we interacted like normal people at least once.

“There aren’t any other classes available, dear.” The woman at the desk was saying to Remus.

“Never mind, then, thank you. ” Remus said with a very raspy, low, and totally not attractive voice as he passed Sirius.

So it was about him. He wasn’t making it up in his brain. Dread settled in his stomach when the thought that had been roaming around in his head solidified right in front of him. The hot guy hated his guts. “What the fuck” 

Chapter Text

The next day Sirius walked decidedly to lab class to ask, no no, DEMAND why on earth was he being treated with such animosity with no base or reason at all. Yes, yesterday it caught him by surprise and there was nothing to do about that but today, today was a new day and Sirius was determined to confront and most importantly befriend the rude bastard.

The funny thing about life is that it often unfolds in weird mysterious ways that have nothing to do with how we visualize it’s gonna happen. Remus wasn’t there that day. Nor the next. Nor the next. Nor the next, in fact on Monday Sirius was convinced he had hallucinated the whole interaction. But as he entered the lab his eyes found those hazel maddening eyes that had been haunting his every waking thought for days on end, it's not that he wanted to be liked by everyone, but he just couldn't fathom why this particular boy hated him so much so that he had stopped going to school for a week.

So Sirius sat down next to him and looked straight to the whiteboard waiting for the class to start, well he was determined to get answers but his pride was getting the better of him in this precise moment.

“Hello” Remus said in the softest tone possible as Sirius turned to look at the man in the eye. “You must be Sirius, right?” Sirius raised an eyebrow suspiciously. He nodded and turned his head to the whiteboard again. "My name's Remus Lupin, I just wanted to introduce myself officially."

“So you're not changing classes?” Replied Sirius without thinking because he truly had this whole thing planned, he had his opening line on the tip of his tongue but this sudden shift in the other boy’s personality had pulled the rug from under his feet with a brutal force that he had to change tactics, but it was too late now, he had let his swollen pride take the wheel of his words and now he had to commit to this stance.

Fortunately, or not, before any of them could say anything else the class had started. For the next couple of minutes, while Mr. Reed explained the experiment Sirius could feel Remus’ gaze on him, he could almost vibrate with the energy he felt from it. Nevertheless, he had to keep his composure now more than ever, well he had been a bit rude just now but what about their first and second meeting?! He had some explaining to do or even an apology would do, Sirius wasn't asking for too much here was he?

"Do you mind if I check first?" Remus said pointing towards the microscope. Sirius shrugged.

"So, you were gone a while" Sirius tried to change the mood of the conversation because well he really was curious about the whole thing.

"Anaphase. Yeah personal reasons." his lip curled up a little bit, and he huffed, was he laughing????????

"Mind if I check?" Sirius instead of pulling the microscope towards him, just reached across the lab table and had to stand in the chair a little bit to look into the lens. "Anaphase." said nonchalantly as he sat down in the chair once more.

"Like I said." Remus said with a smirk on his face, how dare he! "So you and your brother are staying with your uncle, right?"

"Yeah, how do you know?"

"My dad works with him at the hospital."

"Oh right..." How did I miss that?! There was literally only one hospital in town of course they worked together!

They continued identifying the phases exchanging a few words but the initial hostile atmosphere that Sirius had brought upon them had banished almost completely as the class came to its end. The bell rang and Sirius felt a chill down his spine.

"About you changing classes then” Sirius started “Was that about me?" He continued in a smaller, softer tone hoping that Remus would catch it.

They were standing in front of one another now and Remus was almost a head taller than him so he had to stand on his toes a little bit not to lose face now that he was, in a way, finally confronting the man. As he was looking at Remus' face, he could see a fine white line across his nose and one vertically beginning in his jaw and ending somewhere beneath his blue navy cashmere sweater.

"I'm sorry about that, it's not your fault don't worry about it." Remus said as he grabbed his things turned to him and with a small smile, went out of the lab.

After that Sirius kept on thinking and replaying the conversation in his head over and over again. Well at least he apologized, and he looked sort of sweet like a lost puppy. Sirius was now waiting for Regulus while smoking a cigarette and totally not looking at Remus who stood across the parking lot in front of his Jeep. It had been raining a while ago and the concrete was damp, in some places, there were also puddles of water. Sirius could have gotten out of the way if he wasn't trying to figure out what the look in Remus' eyes meant. He could have done something, run or get inside the car, but it was too late there was a car sliding directly towards him with nothing standing in its way. Suddenly he felt an arm around his waist as he was being pushed out of the way, it was Remus. It was all over in an instant, the car was pushed away somehow and Sirius and Remus were in the middle of an almost car sandwich.

Remus looked at him concerned "Are you ok?! Don't move I think you hit your head”.

Sirius was just straight up confused but tried to calm his nerves "I'm fine, how did you get here so quickly?"

For a second Sirius could swear that a flash of panic passed through Remus' eyes, but he recovered smoothly, the bastard. "I was right beside you, Sirius."

"No, you were by your car." retorted Sirius in disbelief.

By then people were surrounding them telling them that an ambulance was on its way, and the kid driving the truck was rushing toward them saying how sorry he was.

"Just stay still a head injury is quite serious." Remus said as he stood and looked like nothing had happened at all, Sirius almost wanted to have a laugh with that wordplay but Remus was actually trying to gaslight him at the moment, so he had to stay sharp and serious.

The ambulance arrived shortly after and they were quite nice to Sirius they even let Regulus ride with him, Remus rode in front though. “You are so clueless Sirius you almost left me without a brother.”

“Funny as always Reggie”

“Keeping it light.” he said as he grabbed Sirius' hand and looked truly relieved that his brother was fine. That was the thing with Reggie, if you wanted the truth you would have to get it from the details, the small actions and looks that he gave Sirius, and the few people he let in. “You’ll get Alphard’s special treatment”.

When they got into the hospital Sirius felt like everybody was fuzzing over him more than they should have. Maybe is cause I’m Alphard’s family?

Regulus stayed in the waiting room and Remus; oh Remus was nowhere to be seen which baffled Sirius because surely they had to check Remus as well I mean he was the one who stopped the car!!

“Heard Alphard’s nephew was in, hello I’m Frank Lupin” he looked like a younger version of Harrison Ford which was not distracting at all.

“Hi.”

“Your chart looks excellent how are you feeling?”

“Fine, not a scratch.”

“Remus said you hit your head pretty hard.”

WHAT WAS HIS PROBLEM!!

“Sirius!!” Alphard’s face was full of worry as he entered the room “I was in surgery I’m sorry, are you ok??” hugging his nephew while choking back tears a little bit, his uncle was a worrier it seemed.

“It’s fine Alphard I promise, maybe a small bump but Remus pushed me out of the way, so it’s fine” he was going to leave it there but “he was nowhere near me, got there pretty fast.”

But that last part got lost in Alphard’s state although Sirius got the impression that Doctor Lupin seemed to know something about that. “Tell your boy we are grateful for what he did, we’ll invite him to dinner!”

“Sure, I’ll come back to release you later Sirius, it was nice meeting you.”

“You too, Doctor.”

As Sirius headed to the waiting room, he ran into a very interesting scene it appeared that Dorcas was having a pretty heated argument with Remus and Doctor Frank.

“Can I talk to you?” Sirius said across the hall hoping that Remus had heard him, he did, he was already looking at him anyway.

Both Doctor Frank and Dorcas left the hall and Remus looked at him as if it pained him to even breathe the same air as the other boy.

“What do you want to talk about?” He was standing right in front of Sirius frowning at him.

“How did you get next to me so quickly.”

“I was right beside you Sirius I told you.”

“And the car?”

Remus held his gaze and for a moment they were close, so close that he could smell his cologne sandalwood? and a little bit of- FOCUS SIRIUS FOCUS

“Can't you just thank me and forget about it?”

Sirius tilted his head upwards “Thank you” he said a little breathless, he looked at his lips, they were so beautiful- BUT HE HAD TO STAY FOCUSED.

“See you at school, Sirius” He stepped back a little, turned around, and left.

As his breathing came back to normal he hoped that what he was feeling in his stomach was just the anxiety of it all, because if not then it meant, well then he was utterly and completely fucked, how cliché of him to fall for the person who saved him really, but that wasn’t it he was sure of it, he was only curious about the whole superpowers thing that Remus seemed to have going on at the moment so he would just have t put the thoughts about Remus’ lips and Remus’ eyes in the back of his mind, he had to deal with the mystery first and foremost, that was his priority. Or so he said…

The next day at lunch Sirius sat down with his now-established friend group from his first day of school, and Reggie of course.

“Well, that’s new.” Sirius followed the direction where Pandora was pointing with her chin. At a table all by himself there he was, Remus Lupin staring right at him and nodding his head as if to invite him to eat with him? “Oh my god, go Sirius” she nudges him “You need to tell me everything afterwards.”

Sirius tried to look as calm and cool as he went to sit down with Remus.

“Hi”

“Hello”

“What’s going on?”

“I wanted to ask you something” Sirius just stared at him in disbelief. “Humour me?”

“Sure…”

“What do you think happened yesterday?”

“I have a couple of theories” Sirius began “A radioactive spider, or a secret government experiment, or radioactive waste you can always count on radioactive waste”

“So superhero stuff”

“Pretty much”

Remus laughed! He actually laughed!! And it sounded like how an angel would laugh if he was being honest.

“What?” Sirius raised an eyebrow.

“Nothing, how’s the head?”

“It’s fine really, an Advil took care of it. How about you?”

“Me? I’m good as new, decided to live life to the fullest after yesterday.”

“Oh yeah? Mind if I join?”

Sirius was just trying to be friendly, but it looked like Remus did not like the sound of that because the whole atmosphere shifted.

“We shouldn’t be friends Sirius” he sounded sad, but his eyes were firm.

“Oh, ok” It was as if all the air in his lungs had been taken from him by some invisible force.

The bell rang.

“We should go to class.”

“You go, I’m ditching.”

“Living life to the fullest?”

“You bet.” said Remus with a tint of humour behind those words.

“Ok then, see ya.”

It’s not that Sirius was lightheaded; he really wasn’t but for some reason, his near-death experience and his distracting thoughts about a certain someone were putting him on edge at the moment. So when the teacher said that they were taking samples of their blood well he tried to stay positive, he wasn’t a fan of blood and medicine stuff like his uncle and Reggie, honestly his little brother could become the best doctor in the future or a serial killer there was no in between, they were so good with biology and human secretions and seeing the muscles and bones- he needed to stop because he was starting to have a clouded vision right when Peter was approaching him with a needle.

“What are you doing????”

“The assignment? You can do me after.”

It’s fine, it’s fine, everything is fine, I can do this I can definitely do this.

“Sirius! Buddy, are you ok?” Peter grabbed him so he wouldn’t fall. Mr. Reed was talking to Peter and suddenly they were moving out of the classroom.

“Hmmm Peter wait, just help me lay down please.”

“We need to get to the infirmary Sirius.”

“I just need a minute.”

Peter helped him lay down and the fresh air was actually helping him clear his mind a little.

“Peter! What happened?”

Oh god please let it be a hallucination.

“He passed out.”

Sirius wanted to die from the shame.

Remus knelt and with the back of his hand touched his forehead. “Sirius, can you hear me?” Again, with the angelic voice!!! Maybe if he played dead Remus would go away and everything would be alright. “Oh Siriuus” he said singing his name in a small voice just for him, it seemed like Remus knew he was faking it and was now having a blast with this situation.

“Hmm, I’m fine just need a minute.”

“I was bringing him to the infirmary.”

“I can take it from here Pete, you can head back to class.” Peter hesitated a little but then turned around with one last glimpse of Sirius.”

“See ya, Sirius, hope you feel better.”

“Bye, Pete.”

“You want me to carry you?” If Sirius didn’t know better, he would say that he actually looked concerned, but no, now the mischief in his eyes started glowing more leaving the worry behind.

“I can walk.”

“But I insist” he carried him bridal style to the nursery and if the world wasn’t spinning, he probably would have fought harder to be released but right this second Sirius was putting all of his focus on not throwing up all over Remus.

“Hello dear, what happened?”

“They are doing blood tests in biology.” Remus smiled at the nurse who was a tall slender woman with kind green eyes.

“Oh well, just lay down there for a bit dear I’ll get you some water and I’ll need to measure your blood pressure. You can go back to class Remus.”

“Actually, I was told to keep an eye on him.”

“Ok, but let him rest, dear.”

“Sure, Poppy.” The sparkle of mischief was back in his voice. He sat next to Sirius. “You are prone to incidents I see.”

“Shut up.” He chuckled. “Thanks.”

“No problem.” He gave him that small smile that did funny things to Sirius’ heartstrings.

Oh no.