Sirius burst through the door of the crowded pub first, dragging Remus in right behind him by the arm around his neck that had been draped there casually while they were out on the sidewalk but now more closely resembled a headlock. Remus quickly scanned the room with slightly nervous eyes while he tried to force himself out of Sirius's idea of a friendly grip with his stiff mittened hands.
The lights were meant to look like candles in deference to the holiday season. Apparently the designers hadn't minded sacrificing function to get the right look; they gave off a weak yellow light that did very little to illuminate the pub. The smoke in the air clouded vision further. The only bright spot in the whole place was the bar, with a spotlight on the tender, rushing back and forth with bottles of this and frothy cups of that. He had what appeared to be a tiny pink umbrella stuck behind his ear.
Remus momentarily forgot his distress in favor of fascination. All these muggles gathered together, talking about their muggle things and drinking their muggle drinks and...
"Didn't I tell you this would be great, Remus? You're having fun already and you haven't even had a drink!" Sirius beamed down at him, with his arm still heavy around Remus's shoulder, his other arm sweeping out to showcase their next great conquest. It was the muggle pub around the corner from the small apartment they were now renting. A muggle apartment in a muggle area that Remus suspected Sirius had only gotten because a wizard landlord wouldn't allow a werewolf tenant.
"Yes, it's wonderful. Why are we here again?" Remus asked wryly, knowing the token protest was expected of him, but not really caring either way anymore. Not after hearing the explanation at least 50 times this afternoon when his protests had been real.
"We're here to celebrate the first Christmas in our new apartment!" Sirius said, releasing Remus from his hold finally and shouldering his way to the last available table.
"And why are we here instead of at the Leaky Cauldron?" Remus continued, noticing the table was only still free because someone had spilled a pitchers worth of something sticky and fruity-smelling.
"Because we're celebrating our new muggle apartment in our new muggle neighborhood, so we're celebrating at a muggle pub!" Now Sirius was somehow managing to sound cheery, enthusiastic, and exasperated all at once.
"And James and Peter aren't here because...?" Remus smiled now, mischievously, always delighted to be the one doing the irritating in a conversation with Sirius. It wasn't always easy.
"Because James is attached at the hip to his blushing bride, among other places, and Peter is out doing god knows what with his new friends," and now Sirius's face was dark with genuine annoyance and resentment. But we don't need them anyway. This is our celebration!" And with that Sirius threw his arm around Remus's shoulders, threw off his dark thoughts of Peter and James and drifting apart, and threw himself into the celebration at hand.
Remus handled the ordering of drinks as Sirius said he just wasn't intimidating enough to hold their spot at the table. He ordered them what everyone else seemed to be ordering being that he'd had no idea what muggles had had to offer in terms of sheer variety of alcohol and he didn't want to seem as if this was the first time he'd ever been to a pub (even though it was). Sirius seemed rather disappointed that the reality of muggle beer didn't live up to the novelty of it but once he downed three in quick succession he was more amenable to it. At that point he sent Remus up for whiskey to see what that was like. Remus had a vision of himself lifting Sirius up the stairs of their apartment in a fireman's carry and having Sirius vomit down the back of his coat as soon as he got through the door.
He shook his head, smiled to himself wryly and went to get Sirius his whiskey. Sirius always seemed to get his way where Remus was concerned, even when he had a clear view of the consequences. Every time Sirius would get an idea and he would turn to Remus, and he would look so energetic and alive, so eager to share with Remus. He could never say no. So whiskey it was.
Sirius had begun to look around at this point, and he looked around rotating freely, his body loose with alcohol. Remus got back to the table with the requested shots to find Sirius watching a muggle game in progress across the pub.
There was a circular board with other circles and lines etched onto it, and number too, with a small red circle in the middle. Two men were holding little, arrows he supposed with different colored tufts at the ends, and as they watched one man held his aloft, stared at the board and threw it. IT landed just to the left of the red circle and the other patrons shouted in disappointment "Almost a bull's eye!" on shouted. The man continued throwing, and Remus watched him with the new understanding. The red patch was the goal, the bull's eye. None of them landed in the red patch but the man got very close on most occasions. Then the other man stepped forward and began throwing. His first arrow-thing landed directly in the bull's eye. The pub patrons roared in approval. Then he threw his next and it hit the wall. And so did the next, and the next, and the next until none were left. The pub booed enthusiastically and Sirius joined in with gusto. The two men gave their arrows to the next takers and disappeared into the bar.
Sirius watched, mystified as players took their turns at the circular board to play "darts" (Remus finally caught the name of the game). The other pub-goers eventually lost interest in the game and turned back to their beers and shots. Eventually the board was free with no new takers. Sirius stumbled to his feet abruptly and made his way toward the board pitching left and right as if the scuffed wood under his feet was the deck of a ship being tossed on the high seas. Remus hastily stood to follow after him (as per usual) and was nearly felled by the feeling of blood rushing through him. The world shifted on its axis and he tripped over his own feet, almost smacking his head against the wall. Maybe the fuzzy cloud around his head cushioned him, he thought drunkenly as he made it to Sirius's side, no thanks to the bar floor which seemed to be revolting against gravity.
Sirius shoved a bunch of the strange little arrows into his hand (no, darts, right). "You go first, Remus!"
Remus fiddled with the darts, his hands seeming a little clumsier than usual. He got one pointed the right way and squinted at the wall looking for the flash of red. He took aim as well as he could given his condition and threw his first dart. It didn't land in the red of course, but it was on the board which was better than he'd expected, considering he could hardly see it. This light was no good, and did he usually wear glasses? Is that why everything was blurry? He threw the rest of his darts, managing to land each one on the board. He stumbled over and removed them, then stood to the side and watched Sirius take his turn.
Sirius was a harder drinker than Remus. He'd tossed back more beers and more shots than Remus. Remus had had trouble seeing the board. Sirius was having trouble seeing the *wall*. He threw the first dart with the wrong end forward. It hit the board and bounced off, skittering to the floor. The next one was the right way around but hit the wall. Remus was enjoying this rare display of bad fortune. He was hardly ever better at anything than Sirius.
Sirius himself didn't seem to care how he was doing. He threw each dart with cheery enthusiasm. Including the last. Which not only didn't hit the board, it didn't hit the wall. It hit one of the other patrons. Right in the man's amply padded ass.
Remus's vision of the future now changed to the two of them limping to the hospital bruised and bleeding. And then Sirius would vomit on his coat in the emergency room instead.
Sure enough the other man pulled the dart from his ass and looked fiercely around the room for the culprit. Sirius was completely oblivious, removing his darts from the board. Remus watched the man get red in the face and get slowly, ominously up from his barstool.
Remus stumbled over to Sirius and grabbed his arm, twisting his fingers into the cloth and tugging, trying to get his friend's attention.
"What is it?" Sirius turned to him, eyes wide and glazed with drunkenness.
"You little punk!" The man was shoving his way through the crowd now, trying to get to them.
"I think we should leave now, Sirius," Remus said nervously, trying to tug Sirius in the direction of the door.
"But we only just got here! I want to play another game!"
"Just come on, will you!" Remus tugged some more, but he could already tell it was too late. The man was right behind him now. He felt hands on him then the world tilted furiously and he was falling away from Sirius, being shoved aside.
Remus winced as he watched the man get a good punch in, right on Sirius's jaw. Then he stood up as quickly as he could and snatched a beer out of someone's hand as they passed. The man was just raising his fist for another swing, Sirius already on the floor, dazed by the sudden and (as far as he knew) unprovoked attack. Remus splashed the beer all over the man and dashed to Sirius's side, hauling him up and struggling to the door with him as the man roared with anger and confusion, still inside the pub.
Well, he knew he'd end up hauling Sirius home one way or another. He looked down at Sirius: he smelled like a brewery, his eyes were glazed and stupid with drink, his lip was bleeding and the area around his eye was starting to blacken into a truly astounding shiner. And he was grinning up at Remus like he'd never had such fun in his life.
"My hero," Sirius said, and giggled in an outrageously exaggerated way. Then he twined his fingers in Remus's hair and kissed him on the cheek, "Mwah!"
Remus blushed to the roots of his hair, keenly aware (as he was more and more frequently) of the warm weight of Sirius pressed against his side and the fingers still buried in his hair, now brushing clumsily but softly along his scalp. A tingling touch.
Thankfully home was just down the street and around a corner. His arm was starting to burn from holding Sirius up, keeping him from flopping down on the sidewalk and falling asleep there like a child would. The fondness for Sirius welled up in him as he reached their door. He got this for me. He wanted to celebrate it with me. Sharing an apartment with me is worth celebrating. His thoughts circled around that thought endlessly.
He maneuvered Sirius into his room and over to his bed, Sirius grinning goofily at him all the while, and he grinned back, helpless to stop himself. He wanted to share an apartment together. Remus tried to let go and drift into his own room but Sirius's fingers were still brushing through his hair, and now his other hand was reaching up and wrapping itself into his collar.
"We share an apartment together," Remus blurted breathlessly.
"Share this too," Sirius said softly, and pulled Remus down into his bed, curling his arms around him.
"Okay," Remus said, reaching his arms out to pull Sirius's warmth closer to him. Remus never could say no to Sirius.