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Remus Lupin was having a bad morning.
To start, his alarm didn’t go off. He awoke to light streaming in through his blinds - feeling much too peaceful - before realization struck like a bolt of lightning and he was flying around his apartment getting dressed and throwing a bag together.
Remus then left his apartment to discover snow falling from the sky and an icy air that his knit sweater did precious little to protect him from.
To top it all off, he sprinted to the subway station only to watch his ride to work pull away seconds before he stepped onto the platform, looking up to see the next one had been delayed 40 minutes. He trudged up the stairs and spilled onto the street, deciding that if he had to wait he might as well do so in his favorite coffee shop.
As he walked into the shop, shivering from the cold, the bells above the door gave a musical chime to signal a new customer. While there was a low hum of noise from conversation and coffee machines, that didn’t stop a pair of gray eyes behind the counter from snapping to the door as soon as Remus stepped through. The dark haired barista smiled at him as he joined the back of the line, and Remus tried to ignore the warmth behind his sternum as his own mouth curved slightly in response.
Remus refused to acknowledge these eyes or the stunningly attractive face they sat in as the reason this was his favorite coffee shop. He thought back over the last several months, coming into the shop at least 3 times a week and ordering a simple black pour over that he could have easily made at home, and felt a pathetic pang at how often he had thought about the mysterious barista.
He had shoulder length black hair often half-tied up or woven into braids that Remus tried very hard not to look at, warm gray eyes that seemed to always be smiling at him, and an easy smile. Never wearing the same name tag twice - Remus checked every time he entered the shop, this morning his apron sported a ‘Kenneth’ - he didn’t even know his name. Before long he had moved to the front of the line and was standing at the register.
‘Hiya,’ the barista smiled at him as he keyed into the tablet in front of him. ‘Large black pour-over?”
Remus blinked back, wondering how he still hadn’t gotten used to having this man’s attention fixed on him and pulled his wallet out of his bag. ‘Yeah, thanks.’
‘Alright, it’ll be 5.50,’ the piercing in his black eyebrow glimmered at Remus as it curled upwards. ‘You okay today?’
He looked up from tapping his card, slightly concerned that he had somehow said a thought out loud, ‘Sure, why?’
‘You look like you’re going to shiver your way out of those shoes,’ The barista laughed as he turned and grabbed a cup from the stack on his left.
Remus grimaced, and realized he was indeed slightly numb from the walk outside in the cold. ‘Just woke up late and forgot, I didn’t realize winter was already here, usually I’m more prepared for the cold.’
God this was brutal, was he babbling small talk about the weather? How much more could he humiliate himself?
‘Ahem,’ he heard a cough behind him and realized he was holding up the line.
Well. He heard the barista huff a small laugh as Remus closed his eyes and moved to the side to wait for his coffee, of course he could always dig himself deeper.
He watched from the corner as the barista moved down the line, elegant fingers making drinks and pretty lips curving into smiles as he took orders. Remus tried to imagine what name could possibly fit the man behind the counter. Certainly not the Kenneth he sported today, or the James he was last Friday, or the full week last month that he wore a name tag with a simple cartoon of a dog and tried to get everyone to call him Snoopy. Before long, those gray eyes moved back over to him and not-Kenneth was holding out a coffee with Remus’ name scrawled on the side.
‘Thanks,’ he reached over to grab the cup and prepared to rush back to the station to shiver and wait in peace.
‘Here, take this,’ the barista reached under the counter, and grabbed a black leather jacket before holding that out to Remus as well.
‘Oh, that’s not mine,’ Remus blinked back at him, confused.
‘Yeah, I know.’ He grinned. ‘It’s mine. You can bring it back next time you come in, no worries!’
Remus stood frozen, staring at the jacket between the two of them, as another customer coughed impatiently. The barista looked over at the growing line and held up a finger apologetically, then turned back to Remus, shaking the jacket slightly in his hand.
‘Take it, honestly. You’re doing me a favor not having to picture your frostbitten body passed out on the sidewalk.’
Remus watched as his hand reached out of its own volition and grabbed the worn jacket, and the barista moved back over to the register. He panicked slightly, holding his coffee and the soft leather jacket, and felt his mouth open and begin speaking. How was his body suddenly betraying his brain’s every instinct for self-preservation?
‘Wait - what’s your name?’
Gray eyes grin over at him and Remus doesn’t know how he ever pretended to himself they weren’t the exact reason he came to this coffee shop every week.
‘It’s Sirius,’ he says as grabs another cup from the stack and salutes Remus with two fingers on his other hand. ‘Stay warm out there, Remus.’
Sirius.
The name bounced around the corners of Remus’ skull and he barely registered the familiar chime on the door as he stepped back into the cold. He shrugged the jacket around his shoulders, instantly enveloped in warmth, and tried to ignore the feeling of eyes on him the whole way past the shop windows.
Remus looked down and finally registered the buzzing in his bag as the second missed call from his boss going to voicemail. He quickly dialed back and began walking to the station. As he explained the train delay, he caught the faint whiff of coffee grounds and cigarette smoke from the jacket and felt another warmth spread behind his sternum that had nothing to do with the cup in his hand.
Fuck.
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‘Remmy, my sweet tall man, can you pretty please come grab this for me?’ Lily’s voice called out from behind him and he sighed as he pushed up from his desk.
‘Not like you have access to a large and portable ladder or anything.’
He heard another huff from the shelves and turned the corner to see Lily stretching on her tip toes to reach for a book at the top of the stacks.
‘We both know that thing is a relic and you wouldn’t risk my life - or you having to give my eulogy in front of the inevitably very large crowd at my funeral - if I so much as set foot on it.’
He reached up and grabbed the book she had been after, handing it to her.
‘And we both know I would be much more likely to send the ladder a thank you note than anything else,’ Remus laughed as she swatted the book against his shoulder and they made their way back to their desks.
‘Well, after this morning I suppose you would want to commit some kind of murder, I just thought it would be Pince.’ Lily winced as she remembered their boss scolding Remus for not sending notice that he would be running late for their morning all-hands meeting. The public library and attached archives staff where they worked was usually an easy-going crowd, with the exception of the oftentimes overbearing head archivist. ‘What happened anyways?’
Remus sighed and leaned back into his chair. ‘Just slept through my alarm and missed the train, not the best morning.’
‘At the very least I like your new jacket,’ Lily slyly looked through her eyelashes over at him and he stiffened, gaze flicking to the rack by the door where the leather had been staring at him all morning. ‘Not your usual style though. Where’d you get it?’
‘I borrowed it.’ Remus turned back to his computer, but Lily was not to be put off.
‘Hmm,’ she tapped her chin in mock thought. ‘Who might we know that Remus sees in the morning, on his way to work, that would own a very cool leather jacket, and smells like a coffee shop?’ She leveled her green eyes at him. ‘And how did you happen to borrow hot barista boy’s leather jacket?’
Remus dropped his head into his hands and groaned. ‘I don’t know! I forgot my coat at home this morning and he noticed I looked cold, and when he handed me the coffee he just gave me his coat! He’s insane and I had no idea what to do! I just sort of freaked out and wore it out of the shop.’
Lily whistled, ‘Dang, that is a textbook pick-up move there, Remus. You are dealing with a professional.’
‘Shut up - I don’t even think he’s interested. He probably just felt bad because I couldn’t stop small-talking about the cold weather.’
‘You talked about the weather? Baby, we gotta work on the flirting thing and come up with some topics before you ask him out. You can’t be going on a first date talking about the weather.’
Remus looked incredulous, ‘A first date? I am never talking to him again - I could barely ask his name today! I just have to drop the jacket off and then I can make my coffee at home for the rest of my life.’
‘Ooh la la - barista boy has a name now? Pray tell.’
‘He said it’s Sirius.’
Lily raised an eyebrow, ‘Sirius? Are you serious? That is the most ridiculous name I’ve ever heard.’
‘Well, you will never have to hear it again. I am dropping off the face of the Earth: effective immediately.’
Lily rolled her eyes, ‘We both know you’re going to keep getting your coffee there every morning just to make googly eyes at him because you’re a masochist.’ She pointed a perfectly manicured nail at him. ‘At least put your number in the pocket of the jacket when you give it back to him and then if he doesn’t mention it you can just pretend he didn’t see it and keep pining forever.’
Remus looked back at the jacket that now seemed to take up an entire half of the room, and chewed on a nail. ‘Yeah, maybe.’
They heard Pince’s signature flats tapping across the linoleum in the hallway and both quickly bent over their work as she passed with a scathing look in their direction that said she had definitely heard them chatting and did not approve. As she turned the next corner, Lily waggled her eyebrows at Remus and he smiled back as they returned to companionable silence.
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The rest of his day moved by quickly, and before Remus knew it he was slipping the leather jacket back over his shoulders and headed into the cold to head home. Already accustomed to the feel of it and thinking it his own, he reached into the pocket for the keys to his apartment. Instead of the metal however, his hand wrapped around a cord. Pulling it out, he realized the cord was a pair of headphones, and they were wrapped tightly around an old iPod.
The edges were slightly battered and the screen had a crack in it, but clicking the center soon had the screen lit up and displaying a swimming baby. Remus could hear the beginning notes of Smells Like Teen Spirit by Nirvana start to come through the attached headphones.
He stuffed the iPod back in the pocket of the jacket and quickly unlocked the door for his apartment, pulling out his own phone and texting Lily as he kicked off his shoes.
Remus: sos i found his ipod in the pocket of the jacket!! what do i do
Lily: OMG WHAT
Lily: who even uses an ipod anymore barista boy is so y2k
Lily: you have to look at it!
Lily: what if his music taste is terrible and it makes him way less hot
Lily: like what if its all Creed or something
Lily: OR WORSE what if its amazing and he is perfect and you have to go to the coffee shop and ask him out immediately
Remus: i can’t look! that is such a privacy violation
Remus: i kind of want to though is that crazy
Lily: not crazy!! send me every song on it and i will put them all in a spotify playlist and we can play it at your wedding
Remus: i don’t know if i trust your judgement for what constitutes crazy
Lily: thats fair honestly
Lily: you should still look though
Remus looked over at the chair where he had set down the jacket, feeling like a siren song was calling to him from the pocket. Grabbing the iPod again - the song had changed to Icky Thump by the White Stripes, not exactly a siren song - he sighed as he brought it over to the couch and began scrolling through Sirius’ music library.
Plenty of angsty rock music which was not that surprising, but a lot of older 60’s and 70’s music too which had Remus raising his eyebrows. He scrolled past T. Rex, Pink Floyd, Queen, and Jimi Hendrix, impressed despite himself. He grinned as he passed the entire Mamma Mia! The Movie soundtrack - he could just picture the punk-rock looking Sirius head banging to Gimme! Gimme! Gimme! on his way home from work. He backed out of the library of songs and opened Sirius’ playlists. Staring back at him was something that made his blood run cold and his brain screech to a halt.
A playlist titled simply ‘remus’
It had to be a mistake right? There was no way the Remus sitting on his slightly deflating couch cushion and the ‘remus’ that was this playlist’s namesake were the same person. Except how common of a name was Remus anyways? He had never met - much less heard of anyone - with the same name as him in his entire life.
His brain scrambled back to life and raced to find any kind of explanation. Maybe this was actually Remus’ iPod that he had somehow completely forgotten existed and Sirius had picked it up at the coffee shop to give back to him. Maybe Sirius liked the name and decided to legally change his own to it and just hadn’t told anyone yet. Maybe he had suffered a minor stroke the last time he was writing Remus’ name on the side of his coffee cup and now could only write those five letters in that order.
With a shaking hand Remus clicked on the playlist. David Bowie. The Smiths. The Velvet Underground. The Who. Songs he was sure he had hummed or sang under his breath when they came on in the coffee shop. Except it was impossible that they could all be here. That would’ve taken ages of watching Remus, seeing which songs he tapped his fingers to or enjoyed, remembering all of them until he could get back to a computer to make a playlist.
His brain unhelpfully recalled a moment months ago when Remus had been mouthing along to Here Comes the Moon by George Harrison as it played on the coffee shop speakers.
‘Big Harrison-head?’ Gray eyes teased across the counter at him.
Remus blushed with the realization he was singing under his breath. ‘Yeah, I guess so. I just like older music ya know? Something felt more real about music back then.’ He shook his head as he realized what he had said, ‘Sorry that was lame and pretentious. I don’t know, yeah I like this song I guess - is all I mean.’
A warm smile, ‘No, I think so too. More real. See ya, Remus.’
He thumbed back up to the top, and there it was. George Harrison’s face staring back out at him from the tiny screen. Come to think of it, around that time, the music in the coffee shop had gotten older, more what Remus would listen to on his own or put into a playlist for himself. He would often not wear headphones at all for his morning commute, instead electing to listen to whatever the coffee shop happened to be playing.
Could Sirius have really been paying that much attention to Remus all this time? The playlist was over three hours, it would’ve taken months of effort with Remus only stopping for five minutes at a time.
Remus checked his watch: about 3:30pm and the coffee shop closed at 4:00pm. He didn’t even know if Sirius worked in the afternoon, but he grabbed his keys and the leather jacket and sprinted out of his apartment.
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The soft chime came from the bells on the door as he pushed it open, and gray eyes snapped to his before widening in a surprised smile.
‘Hiya, Remus. Didn’t expect to see you back again today. Another pour over?’ Sirius smiled brightly at him - name tag brandishing a simple smiley face - and started keying it into the tablet in front of him.
Remus approached the counter and tapped his fingers nervously against it. ‘Just wanted to give your jacket back.’
Sirius looked down at it with an arched brow. ‘Won’t you still be cold?’ He grinned down at Remus’ sweater and continued lack of coat and then looked pointedly outside at the snow. ‘You didn’t bring a second jacket.’ He turned around to wipe down the counter behind him.
‘It’s alright, I didn’t want you to miss anything until I could get it back to you.’ He let himself stare at the french braids that looped around the back of Sirius’ head today and took a breath. ‘I actually found your iPod in the pocket, funny enough. Didn’t know people still used those things.’
Sirius’ shoulders stiffened and the rag stopped moving on the counter, before picking up again as he let out a slightly shaky laugh. ‘Yeah well, I like the old school.’ He turned and looked at Remus again through dark lashes and held out his hand for the jacket. ‘Thanks for getting it back to me.’
Remus was undeterred, ‘I actually was feeling curious and a little nosy - sorry about that - but I looked at some of your music. You have good taste.’
Sirius slightly lowered his still outstretched hand and slowly blinked at Remus.
‘Thank you.’
Remus took another deep breath, ‘I actually also noticed you have a playlist called ‘remus,’ that’s funny isn’t it? It was full of songs that I really like which I thought was a bit of a coincidence. Do you know another Remus by chance? Maybe all Remus’ have good taste in music.’
Sirius’ voice dropped slightly. ‘I think you know I don’t.’ Sirius’ gaze flickered over his face, down to the leather jacket, and back up.
‘Yeah, I don’t know any other Remus’ either,’ He looked into gray eyes and felt that familiar warmth behind his sternum, this time coming with a rush of courage as he set the jacket on the counter. ‘Did you make a playlist of all the songs I like from the times they have played in the coffee shop?’
Sirius’ mouth tugged slightly at the side, like he still wasn’t sure whether he should smile or frown.
‘Yes.’ He looked down at the jacket and started gesturing wildly with his still outstretched hand while the other clenched the sleeve, words tumbling out of him. ‘I just couldn’t stop staring at you whenever you came in and Ziggy Stardust came on once, and you started singing under your breath while you waited in line and it was so adorable and I thought maybe if you liked the music here you would come in more, but now that I’m saying it out loud I realize that is insane and stalkerish and you can leave now and never get coffee here again.’ Sirius was slightly out of breath now and finally looked back up at him. ‘I’m so sorry.’
‘Do you want to go on a date with me?’
Sirius stopped cold. ‘What?’
Remus’ smile grew a little wider and Sirius’ mouth finally decided it might be convinced to join in.
‘Do you want to go on a date with me? Now? When do you get off work?’ Remus belatedly realized he might be coming across a little pushy - Sirius hadn’t even said yes - but having a playlist painstakingly created for you did tend to give one a little romantic confidence.
‘Yes, I would love to.’ Sirius’ smile grew impossibly wide and his gray eyes sparkled at him. ‘I’m off as soon as I clean up, give me like five minutes.’ He turned quickly and rushed through a pair of swinging doors in the corner.
Remus looked up at the beams on the ceiling and smiled to himself, feeling giddy.
Before long he heard the doors swish again, and there was Sirius walking around the counter towards him. He paused in front of Remus and reached around to grab the leather jacket from the counter. Sirius then lifted it up and set it across Remus’ shoulders, its warmth enveloping him once again.
His hand reached into the pocket of the jacket, pulling out his iPod. Sirius handed Remus one of the headphones and put the other into his own ear as they started out the front door of the coffee shop, music drifting after them.
Everybody’s talking up a storm
Act like they don’t notice
But here it is and here it comes
Here comes the moon, the moon, the moon, the moon, the moon