The Marauders - Order of the Phoenix Part Three

Time For Your Practical Exam

Remus sat facing Sirius across a small table, lit by a dozen lanterns hanging from long strings tied to the branches of trees that swayed slightly in the ocean breeze coming off the Costa Rican coastline. Remus took a sip from the guaro sour he'd tried, watching Sirius drink his pina colada. He studied his husband, Sirius unaware of the scrutiny he was under, which always made for the best view of Sirius, Remus felt. When Sirius knew he was being looked at or watched, he tended to act a bit like a peacock - with or without the "pea-" Remus thought, and it was easier to see the real Sirius when he was in his own little world. Like right now.

Sirius's hair was drying out after a day spent by the ocean, and he was bronzing up even after only a day and a half in Costa Rica, his skin darkening like warm toast. His grey eyes lacked the sadness that sometimes Sirius would carry for days at a time, with or without an obvious reason, and his motions were fluid as he leaned back, a cigarette hanging from one hand, arm over the back of the chair, staring off into the darkness at the moon-lit ocean beyond the edge of the dock that was the home of the restaurant's wharf-side seating. He wore a tropical-printed shirt, open, with a tank top beneath which let the edge of his freckle-constellation tattoo show, and Remus's eyes travelled from that tattoo along Sirius's collar bone and up his throat, pausing at his Adam's apple before grazing over Sirius's jawline to his temple and over to his eyes... 

Sirius's eyes were as grey as the Atlantic Ocean, Remus thought, the Northern Atlantic, that is, not the Pacific Ocean, or even the Atlantic in the south, where the water was clear and blue. But that dark and grey part, where it was easy to imagine it being fathoms deep, and containing innumerable things of a dark and mysterious nature. He started thinking of the northern bit of the Atlantic, or even the sea along the coast of east Britain, nearby to Yorkshire. That was the sea he was used to, close to home, where he would go with his mum and dad when he was small. They would collect shells and his mum would sing songs as they walked... Some of Remus's favorite early memories were tied up in that color... and of course many more of his favorite newer memories were the ones he'd made staring into those very eyes.

Sirius shifted and their eyes met. Remus smiled as Sirius raised an eyebrow and held his gaze.

 Remus loved it when they did this, when they just caught one another's eyes and a thousand things would pass between them, entirely unspoken, like seeing into one another's souls. He couldn't give a summary of what was there when they did that - there were no words that described it - but the closest he could ever come would be to say that there was a connection, something made of pure shining gold if it were to be made tangible, like a lifeline that hung from Sirius to Remus, tying up their beings so that their souls could travel between them. A star twinkle from the interior universe of Sirius Black reaching out across the void to shine on Remus.

"For purely academic purposes," Remus started, pausing as he took another sip of his guaro sour --

"Here we go," Sirius murmured, an amused expression on his face.

"For our first year of marriage, how would you say we've done?"

"Excellently," Sirius answered. "Exceeds Expectations. You've earned yourself a N.E.W.T. in Marriage, congratulation, Moony."

Remus chuckled, "That wasn't what I was looking for, but thank you, I appreciate you know how much good grades mean to me."

"You are well underway to having earned yourself an N.E.W.T. in several other categories, too," Sirius smirked, raising his pina colada glass up, his eyes glinting suggestively. "You'll be taking your practical exam in that tonight, of course."

"Of course."

"No pressure."

"I'm not worried about it. I am, after all, the logistical expert around here." Remus flushed and grinned down into his glass.