Chapter Text
“Come on, back to your chair. Chop chop!”, Sirius urged when James had disappeared upstairs. “We’ve got work to do, professor.”
Remus took his place back in the tattooing chair and Sirius straddled him once more. His had rested on the tattoo machine on the table next to them, but he didn’t quite grab it yet. He took a deep breath instead, without taking his eyes off of Remus, and in that same breath he said: “By Merlin you are beautiful.”
Remus chuckled and looked away so that he wouldn’t show the flustered look on his face. “Chop chop, I thought we’ve got work to do”, he said sheepishly.
“Oh, right.” Sirius took up the tattoo machine once more and continued where they left off. The needle buzzed against Remus’ skin, leaving behind a trail of black ink. The first day Remus got here, he’d been afraid it’d hurt, though he was too proud to ever voice that fear. Now that he’d been here over and over again, always in the same situation, straddled by Sirius, told how beautiful he looked, admired and cared for, he was confident to call it the best feeling in the world. He could relax and close his eyes. He could listen to the buzzing of the machine and the rock music that spilled faintly out of the speakers in the front of the parlour. He could listen to Sirius’ breathing and sometimes hear him hum along and he could truly relax.
“You know, you’ve never once asked for a break”, Sirius said after a while. It was true. It had always been Sirius who persuaded him to take one, mostly because his hands would rather do other things than hold a tattoo machine when he was with Remus.
“This is my break”, Remus said.
“Your break from what?”
“Everything.”
Sirius found satisfaction in that answer and continued working. Remus liked watching him work. He’s got that same focussed face as Regulus, but it was so much rarer on him, like it was a privilege to see Sirius with it the same way it was a privilege to see Regulus without it. Maybe James thought the exact same about Regulus’ smile or laugh. The Black brothers truly were a magnificent concept.
Sirius put the tattoo machine down and smiled at Remus. His hands found their way to his bare waist as he admired his work.
“You need a break?”, Remus asked. Sirius smiled even more, something playful about his eyes. Something proud.
“That was the last one, Remus”, he said and he leaned in to kiss him. “The last star”, he said when they pulled apart. “It’s done.”
Remus could look at his chest a thousand times again in the future, but now his eyes were on Sirius and Sirius only. That artist’s smile as he admired his masterpiece… It would kill him someday.
He morphed back into his focussed work face. “Let’s get this mess cleaned up then, shall we?”
A little while later Remus was wrapped up again in clear plastic wrap and slipped back into his shirt. Now it was his turn to grab Sirius by the waist and pull him in for another kiss. A long, passionate one that allowed them to let their warmth spill into each other. Their bodies got close, but just distant enough not to hurt Remus’ tattoo, bending their hips in weird angles.
“How much?”, Remus asked when they let go again.
Sirius looked at him as if he spoke another language. Tilted head, blinking confused. “Huh?”
“How much do I owe you?”, Remus asked again.
“Oh!”, Sirius understood, “uhm… nothing. It’s free of charge.”
“Sirius, you’ve spend hours on this”, Remus argued.
Sirius just shrugged. “It’s a gift. Don’t worry about it. You paid the advance already anyways. It’s fine, really.”
Remus let out a defeated laugh. “You can’t be serious...”
Sirius raised his eyebrows at him and a devilish grin grew on his face as he saw his chance and took it. “Actually I’m Sirius all of the time.”
Remus had spent years studying all the intricacies of the English language, and he could assure anyone there were much better puns than this one, so he sighed rather than just laughing like what Sirius had aimed at.
“Laugh”, he commanded slightly offended. “That’s the charge. You pay in laughter so I can feel good about my jokes.”
Now Remus did laugh, but he didn’t know at what in particular. Certainly more at Sirius’ mannerisms than his language ingenuity.
“That’s my boy”, Sirius said proudly. Something in his eyes sparkled like the fucking stars and Remus knew he wouldn’t be able to keep his mouth off of him much longer. How did he ever fall this lucky?
“Do you have places to be tonight?”, Sirius asked.
Even if Remus did, he’d scratch all of his plans for whatever it was Sirius was going to propose next. “No, I’m free.”
“Good”, Sirius said. “Because I have something I want to show you.”
“Now you’ve got me curious”, Remus smiled very close to Sirius, arms loosely around him, nose almost touching his forehead. “Why wait for tonight?”
“You’ll see.”
They spent the rest of their evening with each other. Sirius didn’t have any other clients for the day so they lounged in the living room upstairs. James was still in Regulus’ room. Sometimes they heard them talk through the thin walls, but most of the time it was completely quiet. There was a level of peacefulness about their relationship that Remus would have never expected from his chaotic friend James. It was never like this with Lily. He never let his boisterous front fall when he was with her, but Regulus got a truth out of James that he might not even have seen in the mirror when he was by himself. Remus liked that for him. He knew that he needed it, but hadn’t known a single person who could provide it before they met Regulus.
“It’s time. Come with me”, Sirius said while putting down a glass of the wine they had been sharing. Remus followed him outside and into his car, where Sirius denied his plan had been car sex before Remus could even ask, but also made quite clear he wouldn’t be opposed to it either way. They drove anyways, quite far, maybe two towns ahead where they parked in front of a large building. Remus followed Sirius inside and upstairs. It was a university of some sorts. A science faculty. He didn’t understand what business Sirius of all people had here. As far as he knew he didn’t even try to study any further than high school.
When they got all the way upstairs Remus knew why Sirius belonged right in this place. They were in an observatory. A scientist or three were fiddling with telescopes and looking up at the stars. A tourist or five looked in awe without knowing what exactly they were looking at.
Sirius knew though. He knew exactly where to look and found exactly what he was looking for through the lens of a telescope in a matter of seconds. If only he could orientate that well during the day, he might actually have been of help when Remus had to read all the maps in New Hogsmeade.
Sirius pointed at a constellation. “That one”, he said with certainty. “Alpha Canis Majoris.”
“Big dog?”, Remus -who took Latin but never bothered with astronomy- asked slightly confused. He too took a look through the telescope which Sirius had left in the right position to look straight at the constellation.
“Yeah”, Sirius said amused. “Big dog. Do you recognise it?”
Remus studied the constellation for a good minute. He printed the placement of the stars in his brain, and found that they overlapped with the placement of Sirius’ hands and the tattoo machine. Every star in the right place. “It’s…”, he said when he looked back at Sirius. He didn’t need to finish his sentence for him to know what he meant. You tattooed this constellation on my chest.
“Yeah it is.” There was something shy about his smile. Remus knew that he was about to say something sappy.
“Why?”, he asked.
“You see the big one?”, Sirius asked, pointing blindly at the sky rather than the telescope. Remus looked through it’s lens once more.
“Yeah.” How could he not. It shined brighter than any other star.
“That one’s Sirius”, he simply explained. Remus gazed at it for another minute, completely enthralled. Then he looked at Sirius again, and once again found him shining brighter than any other star.
“Is this some equivalent of those tacky couples who tattoo each other’s names in a heart on their arms?”, Remus asked with his hands on his hips.
Sirius laughed. “It might…”, he admitted. “But you asked for stars, so I gave you stars. Consider it a signature, if that sits better with you.”
“No, it’s alright”, Remus quickly said. “It’s perfect even. I wouldn’t want it any other way, Starman.”
“More like Blackstar”, Sirius corrected. Remus could swear he just got hotter the more he learned about David Bowie.
“More like Prettiest Star”, Remus one-upped him.
Sirius chuckled. “I guess I can live with that”, he brushed off.
“Oh please. You love it when I call you pretty”, Remus claimed and he once again got an arm around Sirius’ body, and another one occupied with brushing a strand of long black hair out of his face.
“Yeah I do…”, Sirius admitted. He kissed him and Remus could laugh in every astronauts face because while they had spent decades of research just to reach the moon, he had figured out how to reach the prettiest and brightest star without knowing even a single thing about space travel. And he'd always have him with him, right on his heart.