The following is actually the result of two fic challenges. The first was my selection of the invisibility cloak challenge for the SBRL FQF; I immediately pictured the scene with Remus waking Sirius, although in my head it was still at the school at the time. Then Monica challenged me to a Marauders fic, framed as a quiet night at a pub two months after graduation, with, as she put it, angsty!Peter, Remus crushing on Sirius, drunk!Sirius and worried!James.

The two ideas very quickly converged, and resulted in... this.

So -- thanks to Monica for the idea, and Sam, Mon & Pris for the betas. The rest of you... enjoy. :)

--

The bartender at Three Ravens Pub was having an extremely strange night.

He'd been feeling jovial when the four young men arrived, some hours ago. They came in, took a table at the far corner, and made little other fuss besides some loudly-pitched conversation, which wasn't that unusual, or even enough to distract the other customers. But, rather oddly, the room began to empty. One or two people at a time would just... wander out, unconcernedly enough, until the bartender realized it was a Friday night, long before closing, and the pub was empty -- except for that back table.

At that, he began to feel extremely nervous.

The feeling only got worse as the minutes ticked by, and the conversation got rowdier, until the short, round-faced, pale-haired one looked over, leveled a long stick at him, and muttered something under his breath.

Then, suddenly, he found it rather difficult to care. Or do much of anything, but grin, whistle tunelessly between his front teeth, and keep bringing those four nice young men their drinks. And he didn't think all that hard about what exactly they were saying....

--

"Poor guy," Remus said, smiling lopsidedly, over his mug. "Never knew what hit him."

"That's because I'm good at these," Peter said, waving his wand in exhibition for a moment before restowing it, and making a face. "Distraction spells. One of my best."

"One of your only best," Sirius laughed -- although not that unkindly, despite the words: just drunkenly. He'd finished four beers and was making headway on his fifth. Peter looked at the table, his lip twitching, before James spoke up and changed the subject.

"We probably should have tried to find a non-Muggle pub."

"Ah, there aren't any around here," Sirius said, waving one hand. "That's why I wanted to meet out here. It's just us, by ourselves. The Marauders, Hogwarts graduates now, back together." He raised his mug. "Cheers to us all --"

Remus, watching this, realized he had to start it off.

"Moony," he said, raising his own mug.

"Wormtail," said Peter, his voice squeaking a bit as he modulated back up into forcible cheerfulness.

"Padfoot," Sirius continued, sloshing a bit of beer over the side and muttering, "oops," as James raised the final mug:

"And Prongs," he said.

They clanked mugs together and drank deeply. Sirius was laughing when he put down his mug. Remus watched the smile cross his friend's face, and smiled back a little himself, his eyes warm. Sirius noticed, and looked a little surprised -- then laughed again and took another drink.

"Two months," James said. "Two months now, out of school...."

"We haven't taken over the world yet," Sirius said. "We need to get down to business."

Peter snorted into his beer as if that were particularly funny. James looked askance at him; Peter had slid a bit sideways in his chair.

"I haven't seen you since graduation," Remus said, distracting James. "What have you been doing?"

"Travel, mostly." He adjusted his glasses and smiled a little. "Got as far as Greece before Lily sent an owl begging me to come home...."

"Ha," said Sirius, chortling. "Can't live without you, that girl...."

"Well, I told you I'd been writing her, but she was impatient to see me...."

"Sure, that's what she was impatient about."

James stared back, then laughed, turning back to Remus. "How about you?"

"Impatient for something," Remus said, glancing at Sirius involuntarily, but so quickly he hoped his friend didn't notice. He didn't. Peter, on the other hand, did, but fortunately all he did was let out a loud guffaw, as if Remus had made a spectacular joke. James just looked bemused.

Remus finally laughed and shrugged. "Been sticking close to Hogsmeade," he admitted. "Not up to a lot, yet."

James looked sympathetic. They all knew, of course, where Remus spent a fair amount of his time, depending on the moon phases. "Has anyone been around?"

"I visited," Peter said. Remus looked at him. "Well, once."

"You just ran into him at Honeydukes," Sirius drawled. "Reloading on ice mice? Devouring your own species?" He laughed at his own joke, clapping one hand to Peter's shoulder to say he just meant it in fun. Peter briefly looked tense, then relaxed. Even James, who'd been acting a little worried all night, cracked a smile.

"So you were around then, too," he said to Sirius. "You said you had been, in that letter."

In fact, Remus had spent a fair amount of time with Sirius over the past two months. The two had become quite good friends -- not as close as Sirius was with James, of course, but those two might as well have been separated at birth. Remus and Sirius, though... there was a certain level of companionship, of familiarity, especially when they were... well, changed. Lupin knew he made sort of a scruffy wolf, and Sirius was rather the mongrel -- in an imposing, impressive sort of way -- and the two of them made quite a pair.

"Had a couple good excursions," Sirius said, smiling, and echoing Remus' thoughts.

Remus thought back on those wild nighttime runs, and suddenly realized he was blushing. He decided to take another drink.

Sirius, who hadn't quite noticed the look on Remus' face, just clanked his mug down on the table. "I think we're up for another refill. Mr.... Bartender... sir...."

"I think he said his name was Martin," Remus supplied quietly.

Sirius cupped one hand beside his mouth. "Marty!"

James shook his head, glancing skyward, as the bartender slowly came back to the table and looked down at the young wizard, who was clearly quite smashed and enjoying every minute of it. "I think... another round," Sirius said.

Martin looked at the slip of paper in his hand, on which he'd been keeping track of their orders. There was rather a large number of tally marks on it by now. "All right." A glimmer of clarity came though. "Sure you boys can pay for all this?"

Sirius' smile turned rakish, and Remus couldn't help but watch him intently as he drew his wand and murmured, "Incendio...."

The tab went up in a brief, smokeless flash.

Peter snorted again as the bartender looked, stunned, at his empty hand, said, "Right then...", and finally went back to the taps.

"We will have to give him something for all this trouble, you know," James said, smiling a little nevertheless.

"Not to worry." Sirius faced them again, one elbow over the back of the chair. "He's gonna find his till full of Galleons at the end of the night."

"Which you got from where?"

"A well-placed bet," Sirius grinned. "And I should have just enough left to melt it down and trade it in for that motorbike...."

James laughed. "Still lusting after that thing?"

"Lusting after a lot of things," Sirius said, smirking.

Remus stared, and swallowed hard at the expression on his face. Sirius had made no indication of what -- or who -- he meant, but somehow, just the idea....

The bartender plunked down another handful of mugs, breaking his train of thought. "There y'go," he said.

"Thanks," Peter said, grabbing for one. He missed. Remus watched as he started giggling and fumbled again for the handle.

"C'mon over here," he said under his breath.

"Okay," James said, "that makes two of us completely soused."

Peter chortled again.

"Better that way," he said. "Less to think about."

"Less what?" Sirius asked.

"Oh, wouldn't you like to know." Peter threw back a mouthful, then smiled vaguely at the ceiling. "Think you're always the cool one...."

James, clearly the closest to sober of any of them, raised an eyebrow, and exchanged a quick glance with Remus. He just shrugged. James began looking a little worried again, but Sirius broke into the moment before they could say anything else.

"Listen," Sirius said, "it's not that you're not a great guy, Wormy. It's just that I'm... well, come to think of it... yeah. I am the coolest of you lot."

He grinned again, shoving tousled hair out of his face. Remus watched, and with a sudden flash of warmth, which may or may not have been from the alcohol, realized he wished he could do that for him. He tried to look away, but couldn't, quite, as the other boy leaned back in his chair, chin inclined, eyes lazy....

Oh, hell, Remus thought, wrenching his gaze away and staring instead at his mug. How much did I drink?

And he reached out for another drink anyway -- managing to knock it over in the process, to Peter and Sirius' apparently boundless amusement.

"We are all," Remus muttered at the mug, "completely potted."

"'cept for Potter." Peter laughed, gesturing at their friend. "Get it... Potter...."

Bad puns being infinitely clever when you're too drunk to think of anything witty, this brought on an explosion of laughter from three of the four Marauders at the table.

"Can't trust any of you on a broomstick tonight," said the fourth, smiling a little wryly, and called out to the bartender again, while Peter nearly tipped off his chair. "Marty? Got any spare rooms for the night?"

--

Remus had expected that after clearing the floor earlier, there might be more rooms available, but this was a small place and it turned out there were only two. "Beds are too small to share," Marty said a little vaguely. "There's a couple cots in the closet...."

Remus went to help James haul them out when James caught his arm and said, "One of us should keep an eye on Peter tonight."

"What?" Remus asked. James sighed.

"He's been a little funny. I'm not sure he's...."

"Ah, I wouldn't worry," said Remus, who pulled the cot into one of the bedrooms and began unfolding the legs. Sirius was already sitting on the bed, pulling off his shoes. At the sight, another thought occurred to him, and he said as casually as possible, "If you're worried, though, maybe you should."

"Maybe." James sighed. "Yeah, probably so."

They went back out into the hallway, where Peter was leaning against a wall, yawning. Neither of them wanted to keep talking aloud in his company, so they merely moved the second cot into the other bedroom. "I'll put his stuff here," Remus said, as James nodded.

--

Then they heard a low, rumbling snore. And a higher-pitched counterpoint.

Remus and James looked at each other, then went to peer into the next room.

Both Sirius and Peter were already sound asleep. Peter had immediately flopped onto the cot, still fully-dressed and sprawling awkwardly. Sirius had made it a bit farther, having removed his shirt before falling back onto the bed and falling asleep.

"Oh," Remus said, and added, mentally, Damn.

"Well, that solves that problem, I suppose," James said, and shrugged. "I guess we're sharing."

He totally missed the look on Remus' face as he went back into the other bedroom.

Remus eventually followed, a little reluctantly. When he spied James' bag against the wall, though, a crazy idea unfolded in the back of his head. James never went anywhere without....

He took off his shirt and trousers, then sank down onto the cot, letting James take the bed. James made a few noises of protest, but Remus shushed him and stretched out, trying to make a point. James eventually shrugged and began undressing for bed as well. Remus adjusted himself over the stiff, lumpy frame -- intentionally maneuvering himself on top of the bumps, to keep himself awake -- and waited until James had settled in and drifted off before swinging his legs back off the cot and standing up.

He wasn't entirely sure why he was doing this. All he knew was that his head was still fuzzy from the alcohol, and the unexpected thoughts from earlier tonight were still swirling through that haze, and he'd just been looking at Sirius half-naked and --

He clapped a hand to his forehead, murmuring under his breath, "Remus Lupin, what are you thinking?"

But even as he finished saying that, he was opening James' bag.

As he'd expected, the invisibility cloak was folded into a small square and tucked into an inner pouch. Remus took it out, peering anxiously at James for a moment.

He slept on, not hearing as Remus closed the bag, made one last adjustment to what he was wearing and threw the cloak around his shoulders. As the fabric whispered down around him, his image vanished from the room.

Remus took a deep breath and walked into the next bedroom.

Peter, still fitfully snoring, had rolled over so that his face was mostly down against the pillow, his back to the rest of the room. Remus watched him warily for a moment, hoping this would remain the case. Except for a couple sleepy twitches, Peter didn't otherwise move.

Remus caught his breath and slowly swiveled around.

The window in this room was slightly open, letting in the light from that night's half-moon. Werewolf vision by moonlight was particularly strong, and so Remus could see every detail as he turned his eyes on Sirius -- every line of his lean body, the curves of his muscles, the play of light over his skin as his bare chest slowly rose and fell with his breathing....

Remus, for his part, could hardly breathe at all.

He'd thought about this, a time or two at least, although he'd never thought it would come to this point. Never dared think Sirius would be interested -- or dared to imagine pushing the issue. But here he was, finding himself creeping forward step by step, wondering vaguely if it were the drinks or the atmosphere or that impossibly seductive smile of Sirius' that had encouraged his entrancement this far.

He was standing beside the bed now, trembling.

Sirius slept on, oblivious, and murmured something unintelligible in his sleep. He shifted a little, squeezing his eyes shut tighter and moving his head on the pillow; Remus suddenly wanted to touch his cheek to soothe him, but Sirius sighed and relaxed, and the opportunity passed.

Remus watched for a moment... and decided to make his own opportunity.

Moving slowly, almost fearfully, he reached out -- his hand still beneath the cloak -- and touched Sirius' arm, just to feel his warmth through the thin fabric. Then, feeling his blood rush faster, he moved his hand up along the firm muscles and across to his chest in a long, silken slide.

Sirius let out a breath that almost sounded like a small sigh of pleasure. And then his eyelids flickered, and he looked up, seeing -- nothing --

Remus jerked his hand up, then tried to hold still, but he suspected the flutter of fabric against Sirius' skin as he moved back was enough to give it away.

"Who--" Sirius began, his voice nervous, as he propped himself up on both elbows and stared into the room. "J...James?"

He sounded like he didn't want it to be. Remus' voice caught in his throat, and he dragged in another, longer breath, half of which was exhaled in a sigh, the other half in the word, "No."

Sirius' eyes went wide. "Oh my God--"

Remus pulled back the hood, revealing his face. He knew he had to look ridiculous, still mostly invisible, but he shook his hair back and tilted his head and stared Sirius directly in the eyes....

"Remus," he whispered. "You... you came for...."

"I had to," Remus said. Now that he was speaking, the confession suddenly wanted to tumble out, helter-skelter, damn restraint and nervousness anyway.... "It's been -- on my mind, and tonight was just too much to take unless I did something..."

"Ssh," Sirius whispered, looking anxiously at Peter. The other boy muttered something incoherent in his sleep and turned back into the pillow. When Sirius looked back, he whispered, "For heaven's sake, Remus, I can't just talk to a floating head. Take that thing off."

Remus blinked at him, then slowly, oh so slowly, pulled the cloak away. Sirius watched, his eyes growing wider, as it slipped off to reveal bare skin, down to the waist, and... past the waist....

This time, the sound that escaped Sirius' throat was of a stunned sort of arousal, and his breathing went entirely out of rhythm. Remus wanted nothing more than to reach out and steady his shaking shoulders, but he managed to hold himself still as Sirius reached for him instead, touched his chest, trailed down the center to his navel, kept going....

"I never thought you'd do it," Sirius began softly, as Remus reacted to the touch, and let out a soft moan.

"We can't do this here," Remus said at last, as Sirius' fingers gently traced his skin. Then his hand dropped away, while as one, they looked behind them to the other occupant of the room, who was starting to twitch in his sleep, and roll over....

Remus lifted the cloak. "Quick," he whispered, "Under here."

Sirius got to his feet; Remus hastily threw the cloak around both of them, right before Peter opened his eyes and blinked blearily into the room. "Who'sthere?" he murmured, stringing his words together.

They stood there silently.

"Enh," Peter mumbled, and shut his eyes again.

They both took a moment to catch their breath, then turned.

And realized they were pressed against each other, the subtle friction of skin against skin making them tremble, less subtle pressures in other places sending shocks up their spines.

"Oh..." Remus whispered, as Sirius' hands found their way around his hips and slid up his back. Remus responded by touching his lips to Sirius' forehead, his cheekbone, and, shaking, not quite daring, right beside his mouth.

"We still can't do this here," Sirius murmured against his skin.

Remus found himself smiling. "We could, you know," he said. "Make him think there's ghosts...."

Sirius laughed. The feeling of his warm breath on Remus' cheek, still smelling slightly of alcohol, made Remus tip his head to one side and try to gasp in a breath.

"He's still drunk enough to believe it," Sirius said, then added, "I'm still drunk enough to do it...."

"'What's all that... moaning...'" Remus managed to say, in a fair imitation of Peter's voice, and they both laughed -- until Sirius did something with his hands that really did make Remus moan. "Oh.... oh..."

"We need to find somewhere...."

"Outside," Remus whispered, while Sirius kissed his jawline. "Back stairs."

Somehow, they managed to move. Arms still around each other, feet nearly tangling, they maneuvered toward the door and out into the hall, where Remus had to stop himself from simply pushing Sirius up against the wall and... and....

Well.

His thoughts still stuttered over the concept, somehow, but his body clearly had other ideas.

One step at a time, careful not to trip over the cloak, down the narrow, rickety staircase... Remus' hand reached out to push open the door, and he wondered, briefly, what it might look like from outside, if anyone was there to see -- which, fortunately, no one was. That was, after all, the point. But he could imagine it: there was that door, moving apparently by itself, and maybe just a glimpse of bare feet, under the edges of the invisibility cloak.

And then, as they moved underneath the trees, a belt falling, apparently from nowhere.

Then the cloak, slipping away, exposing both of them.

Their skin was touched with moonlight as it filtered through the leaves, highlighting Remus' hands as he inched the denim of Sirius' jeans off his hips. Sirius laid down to allow Remus to pull the tight jeans off completely and throw them aside.

Remus paused, then, there on his knees, and took a good look at Sirius. He was sprawled on a grassy patch, his lips parted, breathing heavily with the anticipation. Remus reached out one hand and gently stroked it through the hair on his chest.

"Are you sure," Sirius managed, "that we aren't both still just very, very drunk?"

"Oh, we're plenty drunk." Remus leaned forward, straddling him now. Sirius gasped at the pressure, but then, so did Remus. "Doesn't mean we didn't want this anyway."

"I never thought you did," breathed Sirius. "You were always so shy...."

"Did you, then?" Remus asked. "Did you want to?"

In answer, Sirius reached up, pulled Remus' head down and kissed him deeply.

Remus moaned and sank down into it, letting Sirius run his hands through his hair and caress his shoulders as Remus moved gently against his... friend.

Not so much just a friend, now.

Not with Sirius arching up under his touch, moaning, swearing as he hardened, as Remus parted his lips and gently met Sirius' tongue with his own.

The kiss went long, and as they went, fiercer, until they had to pull away for ragged breaths.

"Fuck," Sirius gasped, almost managing, after a moment, to look suspicious. "How'd you get... so good at this..."

Remus' hand slid down the length of the other man's body and stopped just before the critical point, making Sirius twitch. The sudden power of the moment made him mischievous. "You missed a lot while you were thinking I was shy," he said, making Sirius' eyes go wide. "Some people... find that attractive."

"Which people?" Sirius demanded.

Remus smiled a little, mysteriously, and slid his hand just a tiny bit lower. "Think that matters now?"

"I... oh, hell, Moony --" he gasped, reaching for Remus' hand with his own. Remus let him grab it, but refused to move, just yet.

"My name, Sirius," he said, intently, suddenly serious. "My real name...."

Sirius tugged him closer with the other hand and murmured against his lips, "Remus." He took a deep breath and relaxed his hand around Remus', letting him make the call on when to move. "I want you, Remus....."

Remus let out a sigh, and touched him slowly, making him cry out -- and then kissed him, because there were simply no more words to be said.

And after that, they went on not saying anything, for a long, long while.

--

Remus woke early; he always did. For someone who ought to be nocturnal, he thought wryly, he was too bloody much of a morning person.

But as he sat up, wincing at the kink in his neck, he looked down and thought that it occasionally had its benefits.

They were still outside; the sun had barely begun to rise, and the summer heat hadn't yet descended, so it was merely comfortably warm. And Sirius, lying beside him, looked so comfortable himself -- sprawled out, head propped up on his folded arm, the other hand draped dangerously close to where Remus wanted to put his own, again.

Sweet Merlin, he looked good. How had he put this off so long...

Reluctantly, not wanting to upset the moment but realizing he had to, he shook his lover's shoulder. "Sirius," he said. "Siri..."

"Whaa?" he murmured, shifting his head and finally blinking his eyes open. He looked up, surprised, then smiled slowly, warmly.... "Mm."

The look made a rush of sensation prickle along Remus' nerves. He smiled back, but said, "We have to get back inside. They'll wake soon."

"Ermph." Sirius squinted at the sky. "They'll be sleeping it off for a while yet."

"Well, James might..."

He sighed. "Yeah. Uh." He propped himself up a little, then grasped Remus' wrist and pulled him back down, laughing. "We've got a couple minutes, anyway...."

Remus smiled. "Erm. It's morning. A kiss wouldn't...."

Sirius reached behind him, pulled his wand out of the back pocket of his discarded jeans, and murmured something. Remus laughed at the effects, running his tongue along his teeth. "I never knew how to say 'minty fresh' in Latin..."

"Consider yourself educated." Sirius grinned, then kissed him fervently, and Remus moaned a little. Finally he pulled back up and said, "You're right, though." He sighed. "Better go back in."

Remus nodded reluctantly and rose, feeling Sirius' eyes on him as he stretched. "Come here," he said, flapping the cloak out. Sirius stood, too, draping the jeans, underclothes and belt over one arm. Remus smiled as the other young man stood close, and wrapped his free arm around his waist.

They kissed again as the cloak settled down, making every inch of their skin tingle. It was a long time before they managed to make it back to the door.

In fact, they realized when they got back upstairs that they had to hurry; small noises of stirring were beginning to be evident. Remus snatched the cloak off their shoulders and gave Sirius a quick, firm kiss before nudging him into the first bedroom, then dashed into his. He folded the cloak, stuffed it into James' bag, and fell onto the cot just before James cracked his eyes open. Remus was still struggling with the blanket when James murmured, "Morning...."

Remus gave the blanket one more tug, then gave up and slumped back down. "Um. Morning."

James looked at him. "What's -- ?"

Remus looked down at the rumpled mess of his blankets, and muttered, "Uh, bad dream."

James looked down, saw Remus' discarded underwear by the foot of the bed where he'd dropped it last night, and asked, "What kind of dream, exactly?"

Remus flushed. James laughed, yawned, said, "Never mind," and got up.

After a minute, Remus did the same.

They all met downstairs again -- Peter last, looking a little worse for the wear. Remus was still fumbling with getting something stuffed into his bag when he looked up and saw Martin, standing behind the counter, idly polishing a glass. He looked up when he saw them, smiling nervously. He looked as if he knew he should be remembering something, but couldn't quite be sure what.

"Good morning, boys," he said, halting in odd places between words. "How... how was your night?"

Sirius looked at Remus and winked. Remus grinned and winked right back, but dropped his gaze back to the bag before anyone else could notice.

"Not bad, not bad..." James said. "Thanks for the rooms."

"Yes. My pleasure. Certainly." He smiled vaguely.

"Peter," James said under his breath, "is he ever going to snap out of this?"

"It'll wear off once we leave." He paused. "I think."

James shook his head. Sirius just smirked, dug a hand into his pocket, and pulled out a gold coin. "Here," he said. "A little extra tip for your troubles."

He flicked it Marty's direction. To everyone's surprise, he caught it neatly, and peered at the face of the coin. "I found my register full of these last night," he said. "Can't fathom where they come from...."

"It's gold," Sirius suggested. "Easily exchangeable anywhere."

"If that's really all gold," he murmured, "I'm...."

"A rich man, Mr. Bartender," Sirius said, grinning. He gestured to his friends, and his new more-than-friend, and said, "Come on. It's a bright new day. And I want to go motorbike shopping."

"You got it," Remus grinned, and the two of them headed out the door, with James following, watching them speculatively, and Peter staggering a bit after.

--

The bartender watched them go, still rubbing a thumb over the peculiar coin. Whatever it was -- wherever it was from -- he... well, wasn't that inclined to worry about it. Not after he'd sat up most the night, staring at the pile; it hadn't vanished, although he'd half-expected it to. No, this was the real stuff. Real gold. It made up for the weird lack of clientele last night... not that he could remember why no one had been there. Well, no one except those four young men. They'd certainly been nice. Ordered a lot. Apparently paid for it, too. And those two who'd been winking at each other... they made a cute couple, really.

Martin smiled, bit the coin for good measure, and, reassured, went back to readying the bar for business.

Strange night. Definitely a strange night.

But, he thought - not even guessing the half of it - it had been a damn good one.