Towel

@wolfstarmicrofic - 172 words

“If numbers are your thing, you can throw the towel right away.” Coach Lupin looked worried. He was new, the main coach's hand, and far more careful than old Dumbles. “McNair hasn't lost a fight yet, and all knockouts.”

As if. Sirius knows that at least two of McNair's past opponents won't ever fight again, and at least one of them was lucky to survive at all. He still wants this fight. Frank was a friend, and McNair broke his back, the bastard.

“Seriously, though.” Coach Lupin looks worried. “You don't have to. Dumbles may be miffed, our promoter, you know, but...” He looks Sirius up and down in a way that could be just professional, but Sirius hopes it isn't. Unprofessional, yes, but still... look at that guy.

“I want to, and I will. I'll send him to the boards. I'll do what no one else could.”

“How?”

Sirius grins his best smile, flirting, even when he knows Lupin can't answer in kind. “To make you proud.”

Prompt 21 - Towel

@wolfstarmicrofic July 21, word count 391

Previous part First part

“Tea?” Remus asked as he let them into his flat. 

“I’ll never say no to a good cuppa.” Sirius grinned at him, kicking his shoes off and following Remus to the kitchen area. 

Remus busied himself putting water into the kettle and getting the mugs and teabags ready. He opened his little fridge and took out the pint of milk. The kettle seemed to be taking forever to boil. Why was his kettle so slow?

Finally, the switch flicked off, and Remus hurried to get the boiling water poured into the mugs, accidentally spilling the water all over the counter. 

“Shit!” He exclaimed, jumping back as the water dripped onto the floor, but before he could start clearing it up, Sirius already had a tea towel in his hand and was mopping up the counter. 

“Do you have something for the floor, or is this alright?” He asked, motioning to the tea towel. 

“That’s fine. You really don’t have to do that, though. I’ll do it.”

“Already done,” Sirius grinned up at him from the floor. Remus opened the washing machine door, and Sirius tossed the sopping cloth inside. Remus finished the teas successfully, got a clean tea towel out, grabbed the packet of doughnuts they’d picked up from the little Tesco on the way home, and took everything into the living room. 

Sirius plopped down beside him and immediately opened the drawer in front of him. 

“Aww,” he pouted when he found it empty. He sat back and then began wiggling before sticking his hand behind the cushion, where Remus realised too late he’d left his current book. “Oooo, I haven’t read this one,” and he snuggled back into the cushions and flicked the book open. Remus stared at him with an open mouth but said nothing in the end, choosing to make a start on the doughnuts instead. 

About ten minutes later, Sirius began squirming. 

“What’s wrong?” Remus asked after the squirming nearly knocked his tea out of his hands. 

“Sorry, leather trousers,” Sirius explained. He closed the book, downed his still scalding tea and got up. “I’ll go; I need to get out of these and have a shower.”

“You can shower here,” Remus blurted out before his brain had a chance to catch up with his mouth, but secretly he wasn’t ready for Sirius to leave yet. 

Next part

Camping and bare chests - a wolfstar microfic

@wolfstarmicrofic - July 21: Towel - words: 484

Remus was pleasantly surprised by the quality of this camping site's kitchen area. He was even more pleasantly surprised by the eye-candy. The man dumping his dishes in the sink right over with his dish towel nonchalantly slung over one shoulder had the finest sculpted chest Remus had ever seen, with a dark happytrail leading Remus thoughts astray in record speed and crossed with inked black lines that Remus wanted to lick.

He could probably thank the heat wave for it being bare, even if he couldn't imagine anyone complainig if this perfect man went shirtless everywhere.

Remus dared a quick peek up on his stunning regal face, framed with silky black waves and with smirking eyes. Wait? Was he smirking at Remus?

Obviosly, since he was just standing with his half-washed sausepan mid air and making a complete fool of himself by forgetting what he was doing.

With heeting cheeks and downcast eyes Remus got to work on scrubbing his dishes again. Seriously, how pathetic could he be? Not until he started drying his things, he dared another quick look and was met with a friendly smile.

"Nice camping, eh?" Mr Perfect asked.

Of course, he had the deep velvety voice to go with the rest of the package.

"Yeah. Really nice," Remus mumbled breathlessly.

But before there were time for any more small talk, a fierce-looking redhead walked up to Mr Perfect. Not that Remus had a chance, but he was still dissapointed that he was taken.

"Mind if we switch?" the readhead asked. "Harry wants his favourite uncle to read his bedtime story. Apparenty, his own mother is not good enough anymore."

"Sure. You know I could never say no to him."

"That's exactly the problem."

Mr Perfect grinned. The redhead swatted playfully after him with the dish towel as he sauntered away.

She was soon finnished and leaving after him, but when packing up she forgot the row of semi-transparent plastic glasses that Sirius had placed in the middle of their sinks. Remus should say something, or...

In a split second he decided to stay quiet. Instead he collected the glasses, waited however long he thought a bedtime story might take and sought out the caravan he had seen them enter.

Thankfully, he saw Mr Perfect sit outside, now with a hoodie on in the rapidly dropping temperature, with the redhead and another man.

"I belive these are yours."

"Oh? Thank you! I wondered where those went. Can't have a night without something to drink, eh?

Remus chuckled and wondered if it would be too obvious if he dropped his dish towel as sn excuse to come back one more time, when Mr Perfect suddenly looked uncarachteristically self-consious.

"So, er... Want to join us for a bit?"

Remus almost dropped his entire tub of dishes before composing himself. "I'd love to."

Towel - 588 words - @wolfstarmicrofic

It’s a thing Sirius does, apparently.

Has always done, presumably, though Remus only has data from the eight months they’ve shared the flat. He showers and then he just…exists, afterwards, drifting through the kitchen or the hallway or the sitting room with a towel around his hips and his hair dripping onto his shoulders, looking for his phone or the remote or something to eat or drink, completely unbothered. Like it doesn’t occur to him that this might be difficult for anyone.

Remus has gotten very good at looking at other things.

🫧🫧🫧🫧🫧🫧

There’s a Tuesday where Sirius leans across him to reach the coffee, and Remus stares at the wall behind the kettle and tries to think of awful things for as long as it takes Sirius to find a mug and leave. He can’t very well risk getting a stiffy near his best friend!

Then there’s a Thursday where Remus is halfway through a chapter of a book, and Sirius wanders in to ask something about the gas bill, and Remus answers without looking up, which he’s proud of, and then ruins it by glancing over the moment Sirius turns to go.

Sirius catches him that time. He doesn’t say anything, just smirks, and goes back to his room.

Remus reads the same paragraph until the letters blur together, forming something completely unreadable.

🫧🫧🫧🫧🫧🫧

It becomes a sort of game, though Remus would never call it that. He gets better at the looking-away. Sirius, he suspects, gets better at engineering reasons to be in whatever room Remus is in after he’s had a shower. It’s hard to prove, but Remus suspects Sirius might be doing it on purpose. He’s not going to bring it up, though. So he makes his tea and keeps his eyes on the mugs, keeps his eyes on his book, keeps his eyes on the middle distance while Sirius stands in the hallway going through the post, water still tracking down his spine, taking up more space than one person strictly needs to. Not just physically, but in Remus’s mind, too.

It’s fine.

It’s completely fine.

🫧🫧🫧🫧🫧🫧

It’s a Sunday evening when it stops being fine.

Sirius has been to the gym. He showers; he emerges. He drops onto the other end of the sofa with the towel still on and picks up the remote, scrolling through channels with total serenity while Remus sits very still beside him and looks at his book. The words are shapes; the shapes mean nothing. There’s a drop of water moving down the side of Sirius’s neck, and Remus watches it without noticing, and then Sirius turns his head and catches him, and this time Remus doesn’t look away fast enough, and the smile starts at the corner of Sirius’s mouth—

Remus puts the book down.

He stands up, crosses the small, stupid distance between them, takes Sirius’s face in both hands, and kisses him. Sirius goes still for one second—and after one long, suspended second, makes a sound low in his throat and kisses back, his hands coming up to grip Remus’s shirt, pulling him closer down with a desperation. His mouth is warm, and his lips are soft, and he kisses the way he does everything, completely committed to the bit, like there’s nothing else in the world worth doing.

When they pull apart, Sirius is staring up at him with wide eyes. The infuriating smirk is finally gone, replaced with something much more meaningful.

Remus holds his gaze.

“Now get this bloody towel off.”

Prompt: Towel

@wolfstarmicrofic - 137 words

Whatever it was, throw the towel, cut of one's losses, lick their wounds, Sirius didn't do it, wasn't capable of it – or he would have done this entirely differently. But part of him would never stop loving Remus, would never stop hoping to get him back, not even after he left him abandoned in Azkaban for a whole dozen years, give or take.

He couldn't just kill him, just try and hit him with a spell to knock him out. He might get hurt. So talk it was, even when he could tell with the first word, Remus didn't believe him. For him this Scabbers was just another rat, not the rat, never the rat.

A smart Sirius would have seen it: Remus didn't want to believe, so he wouldn't. Stubborn Sirius continued. He always would.

Towel - March 2nd - word count: 356 - @wolfstarmicrofic

“Honestly, I think we should all thank Dorcas for booking us this vacation,” Sirius sighed, staring up at the cloudless sky. “Tenerife is beautiful.”

Remus hummed in agreement. “And the weather is doing wonders for me, you know.”

“Well, that settles it. We must buy a house here this instant,” Sirius said, sitting up and pulling out his phone. “What’s our budget, dearest Moony?”

“We’re not buying a vacation house here, Sirius,” Remus sighed, still lying down on the beach towel. 

“Too late. I found a good one, Moonshine. Look!” Sirius shoved his phone in front of Remus. There was a picture of a beautiful villa with whitewashed walls and a large pool.

Remus looked at the price.

“Two million euros?” he gasped. “Sirius, we can’t-”

“Oh, but we can,” Sirius remarked smugly. “Dead rich bastard parents, remember?”

Remus raised an eyebrow. “Doesn’t Regulus have control of the assets? I thought you were disowned.”

“Nah, not disowned,” Sirius said, waving a hand nonchalantly. “My pyromaniacal hag of a mother just burnt one of my sets of documents. Grandfather Arcturus had another set and so did Grandfather Pollux.”

“So, you’re… the head of Black Industries?” Remus asked, sitting up. 

“Nah, that’s Reg. Gave that to him ‘cause I didn’t want to be associated with those bitches.”

“So, what you’re saying is that the current owner of Black Industries is over there making out with James Potter?” Remus pointed towards the shallows, where it was blatantly obvious that Regulus and James were sucking face.

“Well, if you really want to put it that way, then yes,” Sirius replied begrudgingly. “Anyways, do we want this villa or not?”

“I mean, you have the money,” Remus shrugged. “Why not?”

“Watch out, Moonykins, you’ll become my trophy husband yet,” Sirius grinned.

Remus sighed, lying back down and staring back up at the sky. “Padfoot, is this you telling me you’re going to propose soon?”

“Maybe, maybe not. Wait, what was the thing that the one guy with the accent said?” Sirius asked, scrolling through his phone. “Oh, right! Jaybe… or jaybe not.”

Remus groaned. “Sirius, stop quoting the Arcane voice actors.”

Prompt 2 - Towel

@wolfstarmicrofic March 2, word count 255

“Sirius! How many times do I have to say it? Stop leaving your towel on the floor!” Remus shouted from the dorm room bathroom. He picked up the damp towel and hung it up neatly on Sirius’s hook. Was it really so hard a thing to do? He swore that if he didn’t pick it up 9 times out of 10, Sirius would always be trying to dry himself on a wet towel. 

“Sorry, Moony, won’t happen again,” Sirius called back from his bed where he’d been lounging. 

“Won’t happen again,” Remus said mockingly under his breath, curling up one side of his mouth. He stepped under the hot stream of water and groaned at the heat seeped into his groaning joints. Eighteen years old and he already felt like an old man. “It’s just a towel, Moony,” Sirius had come into the bathroom. Remus rolled his eyes, his peaceful shower ruined. 

“There won’t be house elves to clean up after you when we move in together in July, you know. It will just be me and I refuse to pick up after you in our home,” he stomped his foot a little in the bottom of the shower. He could see it now, Sirius’s towels and clothes everywhere. He was dragged from his thoughts by hands on his hips. 

“Don’t worry, sweetheart, I’ll be good, I swear,” Sirius purred in his ear before nipping his lobe and carrying on down his neck. Remus groaned again. He could forgive a bit of messiness for this. 

towel - @wolfstarmicrofic - word count: 255

Remus knew he should stop staring. It wouldn’t be easy to explain, after all, if Sirius caught him. But the fact that his roommate (and best friend) had developed the habit of simply exiting the bathroom in a towel after taking a shower was doing horrible things to Remus’s mind. Namely, all thoughts seemed to disappear as soon as he took in the image of pale, tattooed, muscular skin against soft white cloth. 

But he did his best to hide his hungry gaze. Because Gods, what would happen if Sirius saw? He’d been able to avoid his feelings throughout all of their years at Hogwarts, and now that they were living alone in a flat, he wasn’t going to give in. Sirius was too important to him. So that morning, when Sirius opened the door, steam curling sensuously around his body, single piece of fabric knotted low on his waist, Reus gritted his teeth and did his best to look away. 

Until Sirius cleared his throat and said, “Morning, Moons!”

And then Remus’s eyes locked on Sirius’s before slowly moving downward, gazing at the trail of hair below Sirius’s bellybutton and licking his lips despite himself.

“M-Moony?”

Remus knew he’d fucked up before he even looked up. “S-sorry,” he mumbled, blushing and turning away.

But Sirius didn’t reply. Instead, there was just the sound of a soft thump.

And when Remus turned to figure out what it was, he saw it: Sirius had dropped the towel to the ground, a questioning smirk on his face.

Prompt: Towel

@wolfstarmicrofic - 117 words

TW injury

Sirius very carefully ran the towel over his hand, where the glass splinter still sat, while James watched him. Only when he was done and could finally pull it out, hissing between his teeth, James broke the silence. “This was so unnecessary, Pads. Why did you go after him?”

“That's likely the dumbest question of your life. Remus was in there!”

“Yeah. Remus and no one else.” They could just have waited the moon out.

“But... I had to know he was okay.”

“And now you are not.”

Sirius shrugged. “It's nothing.”

“It's stupid, that's what it is. He would tell you the same.”

And he did. With a smile. That smile.

(This is a precursor to the microfic that I wrote last summer called Olive Branch) 928 words, uses the prompt word towel for @wolfstarmicrofic

Also, I feel like I haven’t said this enough the past while, so fuck JKR and her transphobic hateful bullshit

Oh and this has genderfluid Sirius so the quick changing pronouns are purposeful

The gang’s all sitting around the warm common room on the first cold day of the fall, Sirius sprawled out on a couch waiting for Moony, Mary and Peter to come back from studying. James, Lily, Marlene, and zem playing a good old fashioned game of cards. 

Everything going perfectly to plan, the trap set, Sirius would get the glory of victory, until:

“We should start a prank war,” James said with a smile. 

“A prank war?” Marlene raised her eyebrow. 

“A prank war,” James nodded with a giddy grin. 

“And where do we draw the line, who’s on which side?” Lily questioned. 

“Well obviously I’ve got you, right Padfoot?” James nudged them in the shoulder. 

“Of course,” Sirius placed down a red 3. 

“And if I have Padfoot then I must have Moony,” the boy spoke with the satisfaction of having come up with a game where he would of course win. 

“Now don’t go deciding things for Remus, he’s his own man,” Marlene started as the door swung open. 

“Who’s deciding things for me now?” Remus asked, walking in and placing his stack of books on a random table, “my lovely partner in crime or the criminal only known as Prongs? It can’t be the only reasonable person here, don’t tell me Lily’s making decisions for me now, can’t be living a reasonable life.”

“James is saying that since Sirius’ your partner that you’ll join their team for the prank war–” Lily started.

Mary groaned, “There’s a prank war now! Oh fuck off, I thought I was finally gonna improve my studies. Here you blokes go, stealing the best teacher in Hogwarts.” 

“Minnie’s on our side now!” Sirius spoke in awe with eyes as wide as the moon, she turned to James and gave him a high five. 

“It may be better if you guys just throw in the towel now,” James eyes Lily. 

Lily turns away, “Remus, you can’t join their team.”

“Oh, why not?”

“Come on Rem, you’ve shared a dorm room with those idiots for years, you’ve got to be holding some grudge against them,” Marlene switched her voice to a deeper more ghoulish joking tone, “join the dark side, let your evil spark out. I can see the crazy behind your eyes Remus, join us.” 

“Convincing speech, I need to think over my options,” Remus put his hand to his chin, tapping on his cheek, in obviously very deep thought. 

James held Sirius by the shoulders, “We’re losin’ him, get in their soldier!” He proceeded to push Sirius off the couch, the dude stumbled on their feet before returning to the confident stride over to Remus. 

“Moony,” she took his hands.

“Yes?” Remus spoke as a question, a taunt, how are you gonna convince me? 

Sirius kissed Remus’ cheek, and then spoke softly into his ear, “Join us and I’ll read to you while you hold me, whatever story you want. Oh,” he kissed his cheek again, “and I’ll kiss you…wherever-you-want.”

Remus’ face was burning as hot as a fire in the desert. 

“Fucking unfair,” Marlene grumbled in her chair. 

Lily nodded, “Such bribery shouldn’t be tolerated, remember Remus, all’s fair in love and war. Don’t let some stupid gray eyes convince you otherwise!” 

Lily, Marlene, and Mary whispered amongst themselves, after putting their heads together (seemingly a lot of Mary and Marlene telling Lily to do something) they came to a deal. 

“I’ve got an offer for you oh friend, oh buddy of mine,” Lily spoke with a shit eating grin. 

“You think you can top Sirius’ offer?”

“Anyone can top Sirius,” Peter interjected as he shuffled some cards.

“Not true! I give my heart out to few and even then, lust and love are quite separate,” Sirius said with somewhat fake offense. 

Mary looked through Lily’s bag, papers upon papers of notes. 

“I’ll lend you my potions notes,” Lily said with a smile.

Remus looked back to his fellow marauders. 

James smiling, thinking he’s won, and Sirius looking just a bit more concerned. 

“I’m on Lily’s team,” Remus spoke quickly. 

“What was that?” Marlene put a hand to her ear just as James screamed, “WHAT?”

“I’m. On. Lily’s. Team.”

“My heart has shattered, broken into a million pieces, such betrayal. I can’t believe this Moony, I know Padfoot feels the same, they just can’t think of the words to say it,” James monologued dramatically next to a gaping Sirius. 

“We better see about getting Minnie or Reg on our side,” Peter quipped. 

“All of us know that they would rather join our team rather than a group of delinquents,” Mary smiled.  

“Time for the uphill battle of a century I guess, my friend,” James patted Sirius on the shoulder, his friend still gaping. 

“Notes…he chose notes,” Sirius spoke, bewildered. 

“He’s got priorities,” Lily, the devil now in Sirius’ eyes, butted in. 

“HE CHOSE NOTES OVER ME,” as Sirius yelled, laughter filled the room. They caught eyes with the boy in question, staring him down with fire in her eyes, “this means war, Lupin.” 

“Yeah that’s kinda what we’ve been talking about this whole time,” Peter muttered, “a prank war.”

Eventually, after lots and lots of whining on account of not having enough people on their side, Sirius, James, and Peter did get some more members on their team. 

Within the declaration of war it was Team We’re Better Than Those Guys (James, Sirius, Peter, and Marlene–who deserted to this side after a certain member of the opposing team started bashing quidditch)  versus Team Intelligent (Lily, Mary, Remus, and Regulus).