Remus grabbed the tea towel hanging from the oven door handle and handed it to Spencer to wipe his face with as Spencer peeled off the fake facial hair he had donned to become Vincent Van Gogh for the evening. He scrubbed his face with the cloth.

Remus put on a kettle, reminding himself not to use magic to do it. He hoped they had any non-magical tea cups left in the cupboard. Several had been shattered a couple weeks ago when he and Sirius had been getting a little frisky on the kitchen counter.
The memory made Remus flush.

Remus frowned and reached up to the shelf in the cupboard. Luckily, there were two tea cups in the cupboard - one of Peter's and one of Remus's, but there were only two of Peter's saucers, none to match Rey's pattern. Embarrassing, not having a matching set for company, but of course if he pulled out his wand now and produced a set Spencer as sure to notice, so Remus decided he would simple make sure the mismatched pair was his. He slipped a sprig of aconite into his cup, carefully smushing the leaves and letting them fall into the bottom of the cup so Spencer might not immediately notice it. His knees were hurting from wearing the stupid boots and his stomach was twisting. November's moon meant a nasty pain in his throat as his tonsils and thyroid were tender - it was also the time of year he would put on a wee bit of weight, though the chocolates from Halloween might explain that as well. The heat of the tea would be a welcome sensation, though, and the aconite would help tame some of the wolfish side effects and help him concentrate better on Spencer.

"I can't believe she made a scene like that, I can't believe - how embarrassing..." Spencer was muttering, shaking his head. His usual, laid back tone had been replaced by his more refined accent that gave away his posh background. Sirius did that sometimes, too, Remus reflected off handedly. That switch from everyday to revert to the high end upbringing - your Noble House of Black is showing, Remus thought as Spencer rambled on his disbelief.

"What precisely happened anyway?" Remus asked. "I only heard maybe half the argument."

"She was goading me."

Remus sat at the table and pushed the cup to Spencer. "Goading you how?"

"Just in a bunch of little ways, a million little ways..."

Spencer took the cup up immediately, but didn't sip, just holding the cup, palms around the china. Remus's cup was off white with brown flowers and the way Spencer's hand closed around the cup felt somehow wrong - but Remus couldn't figure out exactly why. Maybe it was too intimate, Spencer's hand clasped around Remus's tea cup pattern, or perhaps he was just so embarrassed of the shabby cup that it hurt to look at the cup being held by someone who wasn't one of his closest friends.

"I didn't even say--," Spencer said, shaking his head and talking half to himself. "I wouldn't ever - though I will admit a poor choice of wording on my part - but still, she didn't need to make a scene - and -"

"If it helps at all, I reckon my friends are rather used to folks creating scenes and as far as scenes go in our circles this one was rather tame," Remus said.

"So they won't all be gossiping down there right now if I tuck my head out to check?"

"Oh. No, they'll be gossiping for a time about it, but they've seen way worse from even just Sirius and I, so they're quite used to it."

Spencer snorted.

Remus sipped his tea, couldn't taste the aconite, and got up to get a second leaf of it. "Needs a bit of mint," he murmured lamely, hoping Spencer wouldn't recognize the difference between the shapes of the leaves between aconite and mint. He tore the leaf up into tiny bits again as he'd done the first time and stirred them to hide amongst the milk.

Spencer sighed, shaking his head, "She's just acting so crazy lately..."

"Crazy how? You mean with the modeling? I know that bothers you but, I mean, honestly at least it's not like pornography she's doing, yeah? It's a bit on the classier end of things, it's art, right?"

"It's art, but it's also -- that's not WHY she's doing it. She's not doing it because of the art. She's doing it because she's trying to prove to me how desirable she is, as if I don't know that by looking at her. I mean, she is - of course she is..." Stewie paused, drumming his fingers against the brown flowers. He looked at Remus, expecting a response.

"She - she is rather - rather pretty," Remus stammered. "But why would she need to prove that to you? And what good does it do that Philip and whoever else from class thinks she's good looking? What does that possibly prove to you?"

Stewie stared at him for a long moment, and then finally took a sip of his tea.

Spencer put his cup down on the saucer and Remus winced at how horribly his teacup pattern clashed against Peter's saucer pattern. He made a note to refill the cupboard with cups for when muggles came to visit.

And perhaps to put an unbreakable charm on them.

And maybe also stop having flights of fancy with Sirius on the kitchen counters. That could be an idea, too, he chastised himself. But honestly sometimes Sirius looked at him and there was no stopping what came next.

Remus sipped his tea and concluded that he'd added enough aconite this time, and he sat down at the table again opposite Stewie. Usually, only one sprig was enough but November was quite a rough moon and he apparently required more aconite to feel it's effects... He made a mental note to have Peter fetch some more next time he went to Diagon Alley on a run.

He realized that Spencer was still staring at him, a bit of disbelief in his eyes. Remus tilted his head with question.

"You know she's - she's flirting with YOU, don't you?" Stewie laughed.

Remus blinked over the rim of his tea cup, having just raised it for a sip. He swallowed hard, the tea burning as it went down, and he lowered Peter's cup to the table a bit harder than he meant to, the tea splashing onto the matching saucer. "Me?" he said, shocked, "Why - I'm - why me? I - She is? With me? Flirting?" He couldn't wrap his words around into a logical order.

"Yes with you," Spencer answered, "I can't believe you haven't noticed."

"I've never been particularly good at flirting," Remus said, "I mean, Sirius is a sort of come-right-out-and-say-it type. I mean... I'm not as thick as James but I - maybe I am after all." He paused. "Are you sure?"

"Yes I'm sure because she's doing it to goad me, as I said," Spencer answered. He coughed and patted his chest, looking uncomfortable.

"How does flirting with me goad you?" Remus demanded, flushing, feeling a bit of a headrush coming on.

Spencer paused, staring at the tea cup. "Because she knows that I - I like you," he said, voice a bit pinched, forced.

Remus felt hot and cold and silly and sick all at once and he blinked in disbelief at Spencer's words. "You - you what?"

Spencer was red, staring at the table with a funny look about his face.

"You like me?" Remus repeated Spencer's words, panic rising up in him. "But - but why would you do that? Me of all people? Why?"

Then Spencer looked up and Remus realized that the funny look and the red cheeks and pinched tone were not all symptoms of embarrassment.

Spencer couldn't breathe.

And suddenly Remus realized what was bothering him about Spencer Stewart's hand being on the tea cup with his pattern.

And why one sprig of aconite hadn't been enough to taste when he sipped his tea.

"Oh fuck!" Remus leaped to his feet, "Oh gods - the aconite!" he cried. "Antidote, I - Oh no!" He was shaking, his mind not working clearly. He couldn't think, he couldn't process.

Spencer was gasping, trying to inhale, but the aconite - a quick working poison that cut off the air and swelled the heart in a non-werewolf - was taking it's effects and Remus, dizzy with panic, ran to the front door, knocking his chair over and shattering the tea cup as he dropped it in his frenzy. He burst onto the landing over the alley, the party still raging, and he was vaguely aware of the sound of the Y M C A song playing loudly as people laughed watching Sirius dancing on top of one of the closed dumpsters. Remus's eyes scanned the party.

"LILY!" he shouted, seeing her at the bottom of the stairs. "LILY!"

She looked up - she had felt his panic, and already started up to the flat, but now saw it in his eyes as well - and Remus stood at the top shaking as Wonder Woman, closely followed by Superman, ran up the stairs to the rescue.