Work Text:
The first time he sees him, Sirius has snuck out of the palace in favour of spending the night at the local tavern. He’s exchanged his finery for a loose shirt and slacks, tousled his hair in a way his mother would berate him for until his ears bled. But Sirius likes how it looks, likes the way that he doesn’t feel like him when he’s dressed like this, that he can be the Sirius who likes music and drinking and adventure instead of Crown Prince Sirius Black.
He’s chosen a booth in the corner to keep away from prying eyes, a glass in hand and a smile on his lips as he takes in the chaos around him; floor sticky from spilled drinks, the barman shouting at a group of rowdy men across the room, men with arms slung around each other’s shoulders as they sing old folk songs and sea shanties. He averts his eyes when a woman climbs into the lap of the man at the table to his right, only for his eyes to instead catch on a man across the room.
He’s leant against the bar, ankles crossed and lips curled around the rim of a glass. He’s not sure what possesses him in that moment, but he’s halfway across the tavern when the man’s eyes meet his and Sirius finds himself frozen in place. It reminds him of the fairytales that he and Regulus used to read as children, when the prince and princess would meet and fall in love immediately. This man is the furthest thing from a prince – shirt half unbuttoned, hair unruly, scar across his face – but Sirius finds himself believing in love at first sight anyway.
He’s trying to think of how he can walk up to this man and tell him that he’d very much like to take him home and never let him leave without sounding desperate, when the man downs the rest of his drink, slamming his empty glass on the bar and starts walking over to him.
Oh god, Sirius panics, hoping that the alarm isn’t evident on his face. Trust him to ruin his chance with his one true love before he’s even officially met him.
Coming to a stop in front of him, Sirius has to look up to meet his eyes, his gaze travelling across the man’s face along the way, taking in the curve of his lips and the slant of his nose and imagining what it would feel like to run his fingers through his hair.
“Hello, love,” the man says, and Sirius is barely able to suppress the shudder that goes through him at the sound of his voice, deep and with the hint of a foreign accent Sirius can’t put his finger on. “I haven’t seen you here before.”
“I – uh. I don’t make it into town often,” Sirius says, which is skirting the truth but isn’t exactly a lie.
“Must be my lucky night then,” he smiles, and Sirius decides that if he doesn’t have this man’s tongue in his mouth in the next five minutes he might spontaneously combust.
Taking a deep breath, Sirius tries to channel the smooth, suave Sirius Black that regularly schmoozes people at balls and has people begging to dance with him. Lifting up onto his tiptoes, his lips brush the shell of the man’s ear as he whispers, “I don’t know, from where I’m standing I’m the lucky one.”
Before he has a chance to pull away, warm hands settle at his waist, holding him close as a nose brushes against his hairline. Sirius feels his skin break out in goosebumps beneath his shirt as the hands run up his back, then back down his arms to twine their fingers together. With a tug, Sirius finds himself following the man as he maneuvers them through the throng of people and down the corridor that leads to the tavern’s rooms.
As soon as they’re out of sight of the bustling crowd of the tavern, Sirius snaps, surging forward to capture the man’s lips with his own. The moment their lips touch, Sirius knows that he wasn’t being idealistic when he thought this man might be the love of his life, because nothing has ever felt as right as the feeling of this man’s tongue swiping against his own, swallowing his moan.
Breaking away with a gasp, Sirius’ head falls back against the wall as the man kisses along his jaw, nipping at his earlobe before muttering, “What’s your name? Please tell me your name.”
Sirius pulls the man’s lips back to his own, whispering against them, “Sirius.”
In hindsight, Sirius realises that saying his actual name is probably not the best idea when he’s trying to hide his identity, but his head is spinning and he’s clearly not thinking straight. But if the man recognises the name, he doesn’t make it known.
“Sirius,” the man says, almost in awe, and Sirius is immediately obsessed with the way it sounds on his tongue.
Sirius is about to ask for the man’s name in return when his lips are caught in a kiss once again, unable to help the whimper that escapes him when the man’s hands untuck Sirius’ shirt so they can slip beneath Sirius’ waistband, hands gripping his bare arse and pulling their hips flush together.
He gasps when he feels the man’s hard cock press against his own beneath their pants, Sirius grinding against him again and again to chase the rush. And then there’s a warm hand around his cock, pumping it with hard fast strokes, and it feels so good that Sirius bites down on his bottom lip so hard he’s surprised it doesn’t break the skin, in an attempt to keep quiet
Not that he’s complaining, but when Sirius snuck out of the palace this evening he wasn’t expecting a quick handjob in the corridor outside the tavern washrooms, and yet here he is, his moans swallowed in a bruising kiss as he comes over the man’s hand.
“Gods,” Sirius whispers shakily when they pull apart, his forehead falling against the man’s shoulder, who tucks Sirius back into his pants. “Give me a minute to get my vision back and I’ll return the favour.”
He can feel the man’s breath against his ear as he chuckles, “No need. Meet me back here again tomorrow?”
Sirius lifts his head then, locking eyes with the man, giving him a quizzical look as he says, “You don’t want to just go back to your room?”
“I’m not staying here. And as much as I’d love to take you apart, I have to get back to my ship.”
“You – you’re a sailor?”
His lips lift up in a smirk as he says with a wink, “Not a sailor, love. A pirate.”
—
Sirius thinks he might have gone mad, sneaking out of the palace for the second night in a row, for a pirate.
He’s not so ignorant that he doesn’t know his parents are probably aware that he does occasionally sneak out of the palace – though probably not aware just how often – but they’ve never called him out on it, are probably happy to let him carry on if it keeps him from kicking up a fuss out of boredom. But if they knew he was sneaking out for a dalliance with a pirate? They’d put bars on his windows, lock his door and throw away the key.
He’s tried to talk himself out of it all day, but every time he almost convinces himself, he remembers the man’s face, the taste of his lips, the feel of his hand around his cock. Needless to say, he is more eager than ever as he walks into the tavern, hands in his pockets as he tries to appear casual.
“Fancy meeting you here,” a voice says from behind him, so close that he can feel the brush of lips against his temple, a warm exhale of breath against his skin.
Sirius tries to be charming as he turns around to meet his eyes, but immediately finds his brave facade dropping because god he forgot how beautiful this man is. It’s unfair, really, the way his light curls sit just so on his forehead, the way his scars stand out against his sun kissed skin, the way his lips are curved into a smile leaving a dimple in his cheek.
He tries to shake himself out of his stupor when the man chuckles, but then he reaches forward to tuck a curl behind Sirius’ ear and he is so gone.
“Cat got your tongue, love?”
“No,” Sirius croaks out, and he would be embarrassed if not for the way his response lights up the man’s face. Clearing his throat, Sirius says, “You know, I didn’t catch your name yesterday?”
Sirius has been beating himself up about it since last night, lying in bed once he’d scaled the palace wall back into his room, fingers hovering over his lips as he stared up at the ceiling with a giddy smile on his face.
“It’s Remus.”
Remus. Sirius likes the sound of that, is sure he’ll like the sound of it even more when he’s moaning it beneath him.
“Hello, Remus.”
“Can I get you a drink?” Remus asks, gesturing to the bar.
“You can,” he says with a smirk.
Sirius is quite surprised, if he’s honest. He was expecting a quick fuck, not small talk over a drink. But he’s not mad about it; not when he gets to watch Remus’ tongue dart out to lick at his lips after he takes a drink, not when he gets to watch the way Remus throws his head back as he laughs at something Sirius has said, and definitely not when Remus’ hand finds its way to Sirius’ thigh, his touch gentle and taunting and not close enough.
It’s the most drawn out game of foreplay he’s ever had and he feels about ready to jump out of his skin when Remus finally downs the last mouthful of his drink. Sirius tries to protest when Remus pulls his hand back, but then Remus’ fingers are tangling with his and pulling him to his feet. He leads him down the corridor they ended up in last night, past doors to rooms and out into a courtyard out the back of the tavern. It’s a new moon tonight, leaving the normally illuminated courtyard in almost total darkness, if not for the oil lamp by the door.
Soon enough Remus has him pressed up against the stone wall of the building, lips moving against his and hands in his hair. Sirius is more than happy to reciprocate, hands gripping his back as he moans into Remus’ open mouth. It physically pains him to break the kiss, but he only does so when one of Remus’ hands snakes down his body, cupping his hardening cock through his pants.
“Nuh-uh, it’s my turn tonight,” Sirius gasps, in slight disbelief that he’s turning down his own pleasure, but he’s been thinking about having Remus’ cock in his mouth all day and he intends to make that happen.
Crouching down until his knees are either side of Remus’ ankles, Sirius looks up at him through his eyelashes as he undoes the laces of Remus’ pants, only breaking eye contact when his cock springs free; pink and hard and almost begging to be touched. He hears Remus’ intake of breath as he wraps his fingers around the base, giving it a few tugs before meeting Remus’ eyes once more and taking him down his throat.
Bracing a hand against the wall over Sirius, Remus’ eyes fall shut, “Fucking hell, you’re good at that.”
Pulling off with a pop, Sirius grins up at him and says, “Oh, I’ve barely even started.”
He’s slow and teasing as he licks along Remus’ length, swirling his tongue around the tip before taking him in his mouth once more. Sirius’ eyes roll into the back of his head when the hand Remus doesn’t have braced against the wall comes to settle in Sirius’ hair, tugging on the strands as his hips begin to thrust into Sirius’ mouth. Each tug sets Sirius’ nerve endings on fire and has him moaning around Remus, which in turn makes Remus thrust harder and tug tighter, a vicious cycle that Sirius predicts will have them both imploding before long.
Working open the laces of his own pants, Sirius wraps a hand around his own cock, pumping in time to Remus’ thrusts, until Remus’ cock hits the back of his throat and Sirius falls over the edge, come spilling over his hands. He’s only vaguely aware of Remus’ groan as he comes down Sirius’ throat, his ears still ringing and his vision spotty as he sucks Remus through it.
As Remus slips out, Sirius drops his head back until it hits the stone behind him, looking up and meeting Remus’ eyes where his forehead is resting against the wall above him.
“Fucking hell,” Remus laughs.
Sirius finds himself laughing too, the sound merging with the chirp of crickets and the rustle of trees in the late night breeze.
“Help me up, would you? I don’t think I can feel my legs,” Sirius only half jokes.
Remus does help him up, but neither of them move, staying pressed up against the wall, breath intermingling before Sirius’ lips find his.
“Can I walk you home?” Remus says eventually, once they’ve both relaced the others’ pants and they look a little less like they’ve just been shagging out in the garden.
Sirius feels his eyes go wide and his cheeks flush as he tries to come up with an excuse for why Remus can’t, under any circumstances, walk him home.
“Oh, um. No, thank you. I’m fine,” Sirius stammers, avoiding Remus’ eye.
“Why don’t you want me to see where you live?” Remus teases, leaving open mouthed kisses along Sirius’ jaw, and Sirius can feel himself wavering already. “Have you got a wife at home you don’t want me to know about?”
“Ha! No wife, I promise. It’s just, you can’t exactly walk me to the door. My house is kind of…guarded.”
“Guarded? Where do you live, the palace?” Remus jokes, though his laughter subsides pretty quickly when he catches the guilty look on Sirius’ face. “Oh god, you do live at the palace, don’t you? Who are you then? A cook? A knight? Or someone more important?”
Chewing his lip nervously, he mutters, “A prince?”
Sirius braces himself for Remus’ reaction, worried that Remus will be mad at him for posing as a townsfolk instead of being honest with him. But there isn’t a hint of anger in his eyes as he lifts Sirius’ chin up with a finger until their eyes meet, a soft smile on his lips.
“Of course you are. Prettiest face I’ve ever seen, far too pretty to be a commoner.”
—
It’s two weeks before Sirius sees him again, his eyes lighting up when he catches the sight of red sails in the harbour.
My ship has red sails. If you see it in port, come and meet me, Remus had said, and Sirius had spent an embarrassing amount of time sitting in the observatory hoping for a glimpse. It’s just his luck that when he does finally see them, he’s with his father and has to sit through another hour of idle chatter before it’s late enough that he won’t be questioned for excusing himself for bed.
They hadn’t specified where exactly Sirius should meet him, but he assumes that Remus meant the tavern, and not his ship. As he turns down the lane at the edge of town, it’s easy to spot Remus where he’s waiting outside the tavern; hands in pockets, leant back against a tree, face tilted up at the sky. It’s almost the full moon, so the moonlight is bright where it shines on Remus’ face, making it easy for Sirius to see when Remus notices his arrival.
“Hello, you,” Remus says with a smirk, his eyes roving over Sirius’ body.
“Hello, sailor.”
The moment Sirius is within arms reach, Remus’ arms are slinging around his waist and pulling him in close.
“That’s pirate to you,” he says, his voice sending shivers down Sirius’ spine as Remus pulls him into a slow kiss.
Tongue moving against his, Sirius stretches up on his toes, threading his fingers in Remus’ soft curls to deepen the kiss. Far too soon for Sirius’ liking, Remus pulls back, and Sirius can’t help the whine that escapes him as he chases his mouth.
“I wasn’t done yet,” Sirius whispers against his lips.
Remus indulges him for a few minutes more, long languid strokes turning into a gentle smattering of kisses to his lips and nose and cheeks until Sirius is laughing and pushing him away half heartedly.
“Come on,” Remus says, threading one of his hands with Sirius’ and tugging him along, not into the tavern, but down the cobblestone street.
“Where are you taking me?” Sirius laughs, though doesn’t hesitate in walking along beside him. “Has this all been an elaborate ploy to kidnap me and demand ransom from the King? Because I’m sorry to disappoint, but my father doesn’t like me all that much so it’s probably not worth your time.”
Leaning in close so that his lips are almost brushing Sirius’ ear, he whispers, “Somewhere with a bed.”
Sirius swears that his cock is hard in an instant at Remus’ words, at the sultry way he spoke them right into his ear, at what is awaiting them wherever this bed might be. Perhaps it was an oversight on Sirius’ part, but he wasn’t expecting the bed to literally be Remus’ bed, the one on his ship that he sleeps in every night. And yet, Remus is leading him up the gangplank of the ship with red sails, hands on Sirius’ waist as he walks behind him to hold him steady.
“This is your ship,” Sirius says dumbly once they’re on board.
With a chuckle, Remus replies, “It is.”
“Where is everyone? Don’t you have a crew?”
“I do have a crew, but they generally make themselves scarce when we’re in port. Spend the night at the tavern, in the bed of a lovely lady or fellow. Undoubtedly there’s a few drinking themselves into unconsciousness on the beach somewhere.”
For all his daydreaming about what it would be like to be on a pirate ship, Sirius is having a really difficult time to take anything in when Remus presses his chest against Sirius’ back, his hands slipping under his shirt as he presses open mouthed kisses across the back of Sirius’ neck where his hair is tied up.
“You, uh – you mentioned something – about a bed?” Sirius manages to make out between shaky breaths as one of Remus’ hands begins to move down, Sirius’ brain short-circuiting when Remus palms his cock through his pants.
“I may have.”
Spinning in Remus’ arms, Sirius surges up to kiss him, panting between kisses, “Take me to bed? Please. Please take me to bed. I need you.”
It’s like he can see the switch in Remus’ eyes, a look that goes from playful teasing to passionate desire, wasting no time in picking Sirius up so that his legs wrap around Remus’ waist, his hands holding Sirius up by the arse as he begins walking them across the deck. As he blindly walks them to his quarters, Remus busies himself with kissing along Sirius’ jaw, biting at his pulse point and moaning against his skin.
Sirius is so caught up in the soothing sting of Remus’ teeth that he doesn’t even notice that they’ve entered Remus’ quarters until he’s lowered onto a bed, neither moving from their tangled position as Remus settles on top of him and drags his lips back to Sirius’.
Breaking away with a gasp, Sirius’ eyes settle on Remus’ with a smile before they begin to wander, taking in the room around them.
“So this is home sweet home?”
Fingers gripped on Sirius’ chin to pull Sirius’ gaze back to him and keep their eyes locked, Remus’ voice is deep and ragged as he says, “I promise you can look in every nook and cranny of this ship, but not until I’ve fucked you so hard that you see stars.”
Breath hitching, Sirius is quick to nod, muttering, “Deal,” before dragging Remus’ lips back to his and rolling their hips together.
Sirius feels as though he’s going to vibrate out of his skin as Remus’ hands run over every inch of him, lips following the trail of his fingers with hot, open-mouthed kisses. He keens with every compliment Remus whispers into his skin; you’re the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen as he kisses down his neck, it’s a travesty they keep you covered up in all those clothes as his lips scrape over a nipple, I can’t believe I get to have you like this as he sucks a bruise into the skin below his hip.
“Fuck me, please,” Sirius whines as Remus’ fingers run oh so teasingly up the side of Sirius’ thigh, his whole body breaking out in goosebumps. “Want you inside me.”
“Fucking hell,” Remus shudders. “How are you even real?”
Remus bats Sirius’ hands away as he tries to undo his own pants, holding both of Sirius’ wrists in one of his hands as he undoes Sirius’ laces with the other. He only lets go to pull Sirius’ pants off in one fell swoop, hands immediately moving to push his shirt up and over his head until Sirius is naked beneath him.
Maybe he should feel exposed beneath Remus’ gaze, Remus who is still wearing far too many clothes for his liking, but the desire in Remus’ eyes has his stomach doing flips and his cock twitching where it lays across his stomach. Remus doesn’t seem phased by it at all, licking into Sirius’ mouth once more, moaning as Sirius scratches up Remus’ back over his shirt.
“Please take this off, want to feel you, want to feel your skin against mine,” Sirius pleads, hands slipping beneath his shirt in an attempt to rid him of it.
Sitting back on his heels where he’s straddling Sirius’ thighs, Remus wastes no time in pulling his shirt up and over his head and fuck, he’s beautiful. Silvery scars litter his chest, one particularly nasty one across his stomach. If he weren’t so turned on right now, he’d push Remus onto his back and trace each and every one of them with his fingers and then his tongue, until Remus was a shivering mess beneath him.
Filing that thought away for another day, Sirius runs his hands down Remus’ chest before scrambling to undo his laces. He can’t help the whine that he lets out when Remus climbs off him and steps off the bed to rid himself of his own pants, until he’s standing in front of him gloriously naked.
Sirius feels his throat go dry as he takes him in, watching in anticipation as Remus crawls back onto the bed and settles between Sirius’ thighs, hands cupping behind Sirius’ knees and pushing them to his chest until he’s exposed in front of him.
The moan that rips out of him as Remus licks over his entrance would be embarrassing if Sirius had the mental capacity in this moment to register emotions other than want and desire and the overwhelming need to merge his and Remus’ bodies into one. It takes longer than Sirius would like, Remus taking his time working him open with his tongue and then his fingers, but his wish is granted soon enough as Remus pushes into him, their chests flush against each other as their lips brush with each thrust.
He fears Remus may have ruined him for anyone else, and could almost laugh about the fact that Remus wasn’t kidding when he said he was going to fuck him so hard he sees stars, if he wasn’t so preoccupied with being fucked so hard that he literally does see stars. He comes to slowly – feeling coming back into his fingers, the ringing in his ears subsiding, his eyes fluttering open – to find that Remus is still inside him, panting into his neck as he catches his breath.
Running his hands through Remus’ curls, Sirius smiles when Remus lifts his head to meet his eyes, giving Sirius a dopey smile in return, clearly high on the post-orgasm rush.
“Hi,” Remus says with a happy sigh, resting his chin on Sirius’ chest and yeah, Sirius is ruined for anyone else forever.
—
Sirius is walking back to his room after dinner, hands in his pockets as he strolls down the corridor of royal portraits, sticking his middle finger up as he passes his father’s with a chuckle, when he feels a hand wrap around his wrist and he’s pulled into a room on his left.
He wonders whether he should perhaps call for help before a hand comes up to cover his mouth, holding him up against the panelled wall of one of their many drawing rooms. It crosses his mind for a very brief moment whether his father has finally had enough of him and has arranged to have him kidnapped or killed, but then his eyes adjust to the light and go wide at the face staring back at him.
“Remus?” he mumbles against the hand.
“Hi, love,” Remus whispers with a grin, dropping his hand in favour of covering Sirius’ lips with his own, swallowing the moan Sirius lets out as their tongues brush.
He’s so distracted by the weight of Remus’ body pressed against his and the feel of his lips and tongue and teeth as he kisses down Sirius’ neck, that it takes a few minutes before it registers that Remus’ should very much not be here.
Breaking away with a gasp, his wide eyes meet Remus’ lust-filled gaze as he whispers in a panic, “You shouldn’t be here.”
“Don’t worry about me. I don’t know if you’ve forgotten, but I am a pirate. This isn’t the first palace I’ve snuck into.”
Remus winks and it's a miracle he doesn’t melt into a puddle on the spot.
“Of course it isn’t,” Sirius laughs, fingers toying with the hem of Remus’ shirt. “How are you here? I checked before sundown and your ship wasn’t in the harbour.”
Resuming his path of kisses down Sirius’ neck, Remus continues, “Came in after dark – could’ve waited until tomorrow – but wanted to see you.”
Tangling his fingers with Remus’ where they’re holding onto his waist, he ushers them back toward the door, pressing one more kiss to the smirk on Remus’ lips before saying, “Come with me.”
Considering the amount of sneaking around he’s done over the years, this is hands down the most risky thing he’s ever done; sneaking a pirate back into his room. He wants to ask Remus how he even made it as far as he did without getting caught, which door or window he snuck in through, but those are questions for later, when his heart isn’t about to beat out of his chest every time they round a corner.
Only once do they have a near miss, the sound of footsteps further down the hall sending them both barrelling into one of the empty staterooms and shutting the door swiftly behind them. Sirius has his ear pressed to the closed door, waiting to hear when it’s safe for them to leave, but is finding it extremely difficult to concentrate with Remus’ wandering hands slipping beneath his shirt and running across the bare skin of his stomach.
He lets out a yelp when Remus bites down on divet where his neck meets his shoulders, Remus chuckling against Sirius’ skin as Sirius whispers, “Are you trying to get us caught?”
“No, I just struggle to keep my hands off you, s’all,” Remus whispers right next to his ear.
“Well keep your hands to yourself until we’re in my room,” Sirius scolds, though the smile on his lips is a dead giveaway that he’s not really mad.
They make it back to Sirius’ room after that without incident, Remus pressing Sirius against the back of the door the moment it’s closed behind them. Sirius sighs into his mouth, something within him slotting back into place, something that has had him feeling off-kilter since his night on Remus’ ship.
So Sirius isn’t complaining when Remus fucks him right up against the door, the panel of wood the only thing separating them from his family and the palace staff who would have Remus thrown out – or worse – in a second if they found him. But that’s the last thing on his mind as Remus swallows his moans, his fingers pressing bruises into Sirius’ thighs where he has his legs wrapped around Remus’ waist as he thrusts into him.
Every slide of Remus’ cock inside of him has his head spinning, his fingernails digging into Remus’ shoulders as he suppresses the urge to scream until his throat is hoarse. When it’s clear that Sirius is close, his breath coming out in short gasps and his hips rolling frantically against him, Remus has the foresight to cover Sirius’ mouth with his hand, just in time for Sirius to fall over the edge with a muffled shout that would definitely have ended with them getting caught if one of the guards had happened to walk by at that moment.
Remus continues fucking him through his climax, Sirius whimpering from overstimulation as Remus latches his lips onto Sirius’ shoulder to muffle his own cries as he spills inside of him.
Resting his head on the wall beside Sirius’ as he catches his breath, Sirius wonders how he’s still holding both of them upright when his own legs feel like jelly.
Remus’ breath is hot against Sirius’ sweaty skin when he says, “Sneaking in here was a mistake.” Sirius can’t help the way he tenses up, relaxing a little when Remus’ presses a soft kiss to his temple, before adding, “Because it’s a crime that you had to be quiet. I want to hear you, the quiet whimpers and the desperate moans and every sound in between.”
“I’ll moan extra loudly next time to make up for it,” Sirius laughs.
“You better,” Remus says with a grin, glancing around the room as he says, “Have you got a bath in these fancy quarters of yours?”
Trailing kisses up Remus’ neck, tongue flicking out to taste the sweat on his skin, Sirius mutters, “Mhm, a big one. Far too big for just one person.”
“What a shame. I guess I could be convinced to keep you company,” Remus teases.
“My hero.”
—
It feels strange to be out in the open with Remus, head laying in Remus’ lap as his fingers run through Sirius’ hair.
When Remus had told him that night in the palace, settled comfortably in the bathtub behind Sirius, that the next time he was in town he was going to be staying for a few days rather than just one night, Sirius jumped at the chance to spend an entire day with him. An entire day where they didn’t have to hide out the back of a tavern or behind doorways at risk of being caught.
He’s not sure how Remus would have ever stumbled upon this place, an old farmhouse hidden amongst the thicket of the forest, the river flowing just down the hill. It’s clear that the farmhouse has long been abandoned, the door broken open and the surrounding field well overgrown. But that’s all the better in Sirius’ opinion, the tall grass around them hiding them from view, making them feel like they’re in their own little world.
“I never did ask, how did you manage to get out without your guard today?” Remus asks.
“Same as I do every other night, I snuck out,” Sirius says proudly.
“Won’t they wonder where you are?”
“You overestimate how much they care about what I do. The palace grounds are big enough that they’ll just assume I’m hiding out somewhere, sneaking a cigarette in the gardens or something.”
“So we don’t need to worry about a search party disrupting our afternoon?” Remus says, holding a strawberry up to Sirius’ lips.
Sirius takes the opportunity to suck Remus’ fingers into his mouth as he takes the strawberry, swirling his tongue around them as he looks up at him through his lashes.
“Not at all.”
“Good.”
And then Remus is leaning down to capture Sirius’ lips in a kiss, shifting them until his hands are either side of Sirius where he lays beneath him. Just as Sirius is starting to get a little hot and bothered, lifting his hips in search of Remus’ which seem to be just out of reach, Remus is pulling away and getting to his feet.
“I hate you,” Sirius groans, throwing an arm over his face to shield his eyes from the sun that’s blaring down on him now that Remus isn’t above him offering shade.
“Don’t be dramatic, come on.”
Sirius sits up at the sound of Remus’ voice, which suddenly sounds very far away. His heart drops into his stomach when his eyes land on Remus, standing in the sun with his arms stretched up over his head as he pulls his shirt off.
“What are you doing?” Sirius says, eyes practically glazing over as Remus’ hands move to his pants next, pushing them down his long legs until he’s standing in the field stark naked.
With a smirk, Remus begins walking backwards towards the river, “Going for a swim. Are you going to join me?”
He doesn’t need any more convincing than that, scrambling to his feet as he follows after Remus, ditching his clothes along the way. Remus is already waist deep when Sirius dives in, the cold water feeling heavenly on his hot skin after sitting in the sun for so long. Once he resurfaces, pushing the water and wet strands of hair from his face, Sirius wastes no time in pouncing on Remus and picking up where they left off.
Arms around Remus’ shoulders, Sirius moans as Remus licks up the drops of water running down his neck before licking across his lips and into his mouth. Their kisses are messy, a tangle of tongues and panted breaths as Remus threads his hands through Sirius’ hair, the scrape of fingernails against his scalp sending shivers down his spine.
They’re familiar enough with each other at this point, that when Sirius wraps a leg around Remus’ thigh, Remus’ hands automatically move down to grip Sirius’ thighs to pull him up so that he can wrap his legs around Remus’ waist.
“Shit,” Sirius shivers when his cock brushes against Remus’ equally hard one beneath the water, unable to help the way his hips roll against him to try to get more friction.
“Menace,” Remus chuckles, but gives Sirius what he wants when he lets go of one of his legs in favour of wrapping a hand around both of their cocks.
Between the feeling of Remus’ hand, Remus’ cock and the cool water between them, Sirius feels himself coming undone, panting into Remus’ mouth as he gets closer.
“Gods, you feel so good,” Remus whispers, biting down on Sirius’ bottom lip and swallowing the moan he lets out in response. “You gonna come for me, your highness?”
Sirius doesn’t want to examine why those are the words that have him coming with a shout, rolling his hips into Remus’ hand as he rides out his orgasm, Remus soon following after him. They’re both still catching their breath as Sirius pulls Remus into a kiss, smiling lazily against his lips, certain that this is the most content he’s ever felt; fucked out in Remus’ arms with the summer sun shining down on them.
It’s dark out by the time Sirius makes it back to the palace, pulling Remus into the bushes by the gap in the fence where he sneaks in and out, for one last kiss before saying goodbye. Although one kiss turns into two kisses which becomes three until Sirius loses track of how long they’ve been standing here beneath the moonlight.
“I should go,” Remus whispers, hand coming up to cup Sirius’ cheek.
“One more kiss? Please?” Sirius begs, putting on the eyes that he’s learned Remus will cave for every single time.
“Okay, one more, but that’s it.”
It’s at least twenty minutes before Sirius is slipping back between the gap in the fence, lips swollen and spit-slicked but grinning like an idiot in love.
—
Sirius has never fancied himself a good actor, but he thinks he must be doing an alright job when he manages to make it through the entire day without his family picking up on the way his mind is so very far from the conversations of dress robes and royal balls over dinner. Instead he’s thinking of tan skin, curly hair, lips against his, a warm hand around his—
“Sirius?”
Maybe he’s not such a good actor after all, almost knocking over his goblet of wine when Regulus interrupts his train of thought.
“Hm?” he asks, only just noticing that his parents are no longer at the table, the palace staff clearing the plates around them as Regulus stands on the opposite side of the table staring at him.
“Are you alright? Your mind is clearly somewhere else.”
“Yes, I’m fine. Just tired. Think I might have an early night,” Sirius says, thanking the staff and nodding at Regulus before hurrying down the hall and into the privacy of his bedroom.
As he scales down the palace wall, he wonders whether Remus is waiting for him at the tavern, sitting quiet and brooding in the corner, eyes fixed on the door as he nurses a glass of rum. Sirius has never been a huge fan of rum – blame it on only ever being served wine at the palace – but he loves the taste of rum when it’s on Remus’ lips, savouring every last drop as he licks into his mouth.
He wonders how long it will take Remus to realise he’s not coming, how long he’ll wait before giving up and making the trek back to his ship. He wonders whether Remus will be disappointed, or worried; not once has Sirius not shown up when he’s looked out the window from the palace observatory and seen the red sails on the shoreline.
It ends up being longer than he expected, the moon rising higher in the night sky as he lays back on Remus’ bed, taking in the details of his quarters that he hadn’t noticed the last time. He’s almost begun to worry that he’s made a mistake, that instead of resigning to the fact that Sirius isn’t coming, Remus has just found someone else to shack up with for the night. Just the thought has his chest feeling tight, has him sitting upright in an instant and debating whether he should start running now to make it to the tavern before someone can put their hands on what’s his.
But then there’s footsteps. Sirius recognises the cadence immediately, the slight scuff of the left boot with each step, and sinks back into Remus’ sheets with a relieved sigh.
Despite his brief moment of panic, it’s worth it when Remus pushes open the door to his quarters only to freeze in the doorway. Perhaps it's cruel that Sirius delights in the clear disappointment that is evident in the furrow between Remus’ brows and the downturn of his lips, but the disappointment is only there for a second, very quickly giving way to shock and giddy disbelief.
“What are you doing here?” Remus says with a laugh, eyes roving over Sirius stretched out on his bed, wearing one of Remus’ shirts that he’d kept after his last visit aboard. “I was waiting for you at the tavern.”
Trying to quiet the hammering of his heart as he watches the way Remus watches him, Sirius gives him a nonchalant shrug of his shoulders before saying casually, “Just thought I’d surprise you, that’s all.”
That’s all, like he hadn’t spent the last month missing him, hadn’t spent an embarrassing amount of time in the observatory hoping to see a flash of red on the horizon, only to have to stifle his disappointment when he saw nothing but white.
After a month apart, Sirius had been expecting them to collide in a frenzy of lips and teeth and hands desperately tugging off clothes. So he’s quite surprised when instead Remus walks over to him slowly, a look in his eyes that makes Sirius’ insides feel funny, climbing onto the bed to hover over him.
When Remus does lean down to bring their lips together, it’s soft and gentle and Sirius can feel the way Remus physically relaxes against him. Hand coming up to cup Remus’ face, Sirius runs his thumb over the scar on his cheek as he kisses him back, wrapping a leg around Remus’ thigh until his full weight is pressing down on him and god Sirius has missed this.
Like he’s reading his mind, Remus whispers against his lips, “I missed you. So fucking much.”
He thinks he would be quite happy to spend forever like this, Remus kissing across his cheeks and down his neck, nibbling on his ear before moving back to his mouth. It continues like this, long slow kisses just for the sake of kissing, until they’re both smiling so much that it’s not so much kissing but rather a clacking of teeth.
“Tell me where you’ve been, what adventures have you been on?” Sirius says eventually, curling up into Remus’ side, hand slipping up under his shirt just to feel the warmth of his skin under his fingertips.
So Remus starts talking. Tells him of the people he met, the ports he visited, the storms they sailed through. They keep talking until the first hints of the sunrise peak through the cabin windows, the golden glow soon hitting the bed where their legs are tangled together over the sheets.
“You know, I’ve spent my whole life following the stars,” Remus says, fingers running up and down Sirius’ arm. “It makes sense that I ended up falling in love with one.”
Lifting his head off Remus’ chest, Sirius rests his chin on Remus’ shoulder, looking him in the eyes as he says with a grin that threatens to split his cheeks open, “I love you, too.”