Remus stood on the porch of a derelict old house, nested between the trees, yards from the ocean. Sirius had snuffed it out, running through the trees in his animagus form, searching for some place that they could spend the night. When he'd found the old house in the middle of the trees, he'd been positively delighted and rushed back to where Remus waited with Buckbeak.

"Remus, Remus! I found us a house!" Sirius had exclaimed when he got back to where he'd left his husband and the hippogriff, turning back into a man and positively flinging himself across the beach sand so that his feet slid and he tripped and nearly fell multiple times. He landed with a fwump in the sand beside the blanket that Remus was laying on, sunglasses on his face, his shirt off at last and balled up under his head like a pillow. His scars made him as striped as a pink-and-skin tone zebra, and Sirius positively loved it.

"What do you mean you found us a house?" Remus had asked, skeptically, lifting his sunglasses up. They pushed the greying curls off his forehead.

Sirius murmured, "I've forgotten everything I've ever known - my mind has been turned to mushy peas by the mere sight of your grandeur - forget the house, forget a bed, we'll just stay right here and --"

Remus caught Sirius's face with his palm before he could descend on him and Sirius laughed into Remus's hand. "What do you mean you found us a house?" Remus repeated.

Sirius grinned, his mouth visible under the heel of Rermus's palm. "I mean that I have found us a house," he repeated with feeling.

He'd dragged Remus off on Buckbeak's back the distance he'd run as a dog and they landed on the edge of the woods along a span of empty beach. The sand there was dotted with bits of rubbish - old bottles and a broken beach chair, crusty towels and bits of rotted old wood, some rope and netting, and loads of clumps of seaweed. A crab scuttled through the seaweed, disappearing in the uneven sand. "This way," Sirius said, and he waved for Remus to follow him through the trees, Buckbeak stopping at the edge of the tree line to snap at some of the branches hungrily.

"Sirius," Remus said as they moved through the branches, "What are you on abou--" he stopped mid-word because they'd stepped through some brush and Sirius pushed back a large branch and they were in a clearing and in the center of the clearing was the derelict old house. Remus stared in surprise at it. He hadn't expected there to be an actual house. "There's - there's an actual bloody house."

Sirius grinned, turning as he walked, arms out wide as he spun about, "Look at it, Moony, it's abso-fucking-lutely disgusting, isn't it?"

"Yes actually," Remus said, looking at the broken shutters, overrun weeds and grasses, broken windows...

"C'mon, come have a look inside," Sirius was up the steps and onto the porch, delicately stepping 'round broken glass with his flip-flop covered feet. 

"You're going to step on something and get some kind of disease."

Sirius laughed loudly, then jiggled the rusty doorknob, paused, then drew his wand. "Alohamora," he said and the knob clicked unlocked. The door was still stuck however so he gripped his fists together and gave it a good shove with his elbow. The door gave way and a great burst of dust flurried up and Sirius sneezed as he stepped in through the door frame.

"Bloody hell," Remus hissed and he hurried after Sirius, taking the steps of the porch gingerly, half expecting to fall through them. He paused at the top of the steps. "Sirius, don't go in there, you don't know what's in there, there could be anything and honestly this is somebody's place, isn't it? It didn't just spontaneously appear here and you're technically trespassing and --"

Sirius laughed. "Where is your sense of adventure, Moony?"

"I've been maxed out, I'm afraid," Remus answered.

"You've become a lightweight in your old age, love," Sirius said from inside the house.

"I'm not old," Remus replied moodily. "You're older than I am."

"You wouldn't know by how rusty you're acting," Sirius said.

Remus inched closer, trying to keep Sirius in his view. "I mean, I suppose I am a bit rusted, but --"

"We used to do stuff like this all the bleeding time, Moony."

"Uh to be fair, we actually never broke and entered into a strange house, no," Remus called back.

"Me and Prongs did," Sirius said lightly.

"You - what?" Remus blinked in surprise. "When?"

"I mean, it was their house actually. It ended up being, at least. Before he bought it. We were walking through Godric's Hollow and he saw it and - Remember it was all run down and rather how this one is before he went and fixed it all up? And he just busted through the door - just as I've done here now - and he starts strutting about like he owned the bloody place already."

"He was always such a confident bastard, wasn't he though?" Remus laughed. He could practically picture James Potter, swaggering onto any scene as though he really did own everything in the entire world, always acting as though life was easy. Especially in those early years, when they'd first met, when he was a specky little shit with no credentials to back him up, before he'd grown into his ego. Later, of course, he'd more than earned every turn of braggery that the younger version had ever made.

"Yeah, he was definitely a confident fucker for sure," Sirius answered, smirking.

Remus was standing closer to the door, slowly being lured forward as Sirius walked deeper into the house. Remus leaned against the door frame, his palms on the posts, feet firmly planted outside on the porch, and leaned so that his head was inside and he was peering about. Dust particles flew about the room, line marked the furniture where Sirius had dragged his finger through the collected motes as he walked past.

"Oh hey, look - a bed." Sirius grinned.

"Filthy, I'm sure," Remus answered.

"Will be when we're done with it at any rate," Sirius said, grinning. Then, "Hm, looks as though someone's already done the head board in on this one." He snickered. "Remus do you remember the time we broke the headboard?"

Sirius had been waiting a stupid amount of time to ask this out loud.

"Yes," Remus said with a flush. "I do remember that. Quite well, actually."

"Your sense of adventure wasn't maxed out that day!" Sirius hooted.

"No but yours may have been..."

Sirius laughed, "You underestimate me."

Remus raised an eyebrow. "I don't think I do."

Sirius stared at him for several long moments, grunted a laugh, and stepped on through the bedroom door with a grin on his face.

Remus sighed and stepped through the door, looking around like he was waiting for the ceiling to fall down on him. Remus felt a tingle to his nose and sniffed, his eyebrows knitting in concern. "Sirius, do you smell --"

A manic laugh came from the bedroom Sirius had just ducked into.

Remus waded through the dust, hands in his pockets, sure he was smelling what he thought now and he hurried to see what Sirius was laughing about. He looked into the bedroom and there was the filthy broken bed, and just past it was Sirius, face flushed with amusement. Out the back window was an absolute field of green plants, growing quite thick. The yard had all the looks of something that had once been closely tended and was now overgrown, surrounded by a neat wooden fence about six feet high. Sirius was bent, staring out the back window.

"I think I know why this house is abandoned, Moony, and you're not going to like it," Sirius laughed in that barking way of his.

Remus shook his head, "No, no, no - no - no, nope, no. We're leaving, come on, Sirius."

"Leaving?" Sirius asked, "Or are we leaf-ing?" His eyes twinkled.

"No. Not the time for puns. Bad dog."

Sirius snickered.

"This place probably belongs to - to some - some cartel or something and --"

"A cartel!" Sirius hooted.

"Come on before we end up on somebody's hit list."

Sirius laughed loudly.

"It's not funny, it's not funny, they come back here and they find us and --"

"That's what disillusionment charms are for! Security charms! Caterwauling charms! Whatever secret-keeping charms you know. And honestly, now you don't have to feel bad. It's not like we're stealing the house anymore, not from whatever poor sad old Granny lady you were picturing in your head making you so hesitant to claim this place for ourselves anyway. This is like - it's the opposite of commiting a felony, really, isn't it? We're taking it to stop crime from happening." Sirius waved his palm at the field of weed outside. "You're stopping it being used for illicit purposes."

"And what are we going to do with --" Remus waved his palm, "-- all of that? And do not say --"

"Smoke it," Sirius said at exactly the same time Remus said not to say it, which only made it more fun to say, honestly.

Remus pinched the bridge of his nose. "Sirius --"

"You know it's in the aconite family?" Sirius asked. 

Remus looked up, eyes squinted at him, "And they say it's excellent for medicinal purposes. Maybe it will help your Furry Little Problem."

"First of all, it doesn't - second of all, I - I don't think it is in the aconite family, actually."

"I know, I just made that up. It sounded good in the moment," Sirius waved it off. "And to answer your first of all... You say it with such confidence! As if you've tried it." Sirius paused, and as Remus flushed, he exclaimed, "You've TRIED it?"

Remus looked down. "Maybe."

"When?" Sirius demanded.

Remus flushed. "1986."

Sirius's eyebrow went up.

"At a concert," Remus murmured.

"A concert!" Sirius exclaimed, the story getting juicier by the second. "A concert by whom?"

Remus stared at him. 

"Who was it?"

Remus drew a deep breath, "Bowie."

Sirius stared at him, his eyes wide and face contorted into one of shock, then, "YOU FUCKING SAW DAVID BOWIE WITHOUT ME?!"

"What was I to do? Bring him to Azkaban?!"

"FUCKING YES!" Sirius shouted. "You don't just GO AND SEE DAVID BOWIE WITHOUT ME. What the fuck?"

Remus rolled his eyes.

Then, Sirius's eyes widened, "Bloody hell. Did you go alone? You couldn't have gone alone. Who did you take to a David Bowie show without me?"

"I mean -- do we have to talk about this right now? Can't we focus on --" Remus waved his hands about from the pot to the house walls to the door.

Sirius stared at Remus.

Remus stared at Sirius.

Sirius stared extra hard at Remus.

"What do you want me to say, Sirius? No. No I wasn't alone at the David Bowie show and honestly, I needed the pot just to bloody get through the night. I - it was the first time in five years that I'd gone out with anybody anywhere and I convinced myself it woul be grand except it wasn't because guess what? I only liked David Bowie because of YOU and all I could think about was how the guy I was there with wasn't YOU and how it wasn't fun being there and honestly it really fucked me up in the head because I wanted to take it all back afterward and I couldn't - I can't - and the only bleeding person on this planet who I wanted to tell about the whole thing was hundreds of miles across the sea, stuck behind bars for something I didn't even really believe you did deep down but I was so fucking brainwashed and I let them do it, I let them take you away from me, just like I always said I wouldn't do!"

There was silence in the derelict house for several long minutes.

Remus stared very hard at the floor by his feet. 

Sirius stepped over to Remus, putting his hands on his shoulders. "Moony."

"What?" Remus looked up - well slightly, up enough to meet Sirius's eyes.

"I'm not mad at you. Not really. I'm glad you were... living and - and making friends and.. and more." Sirius ended lamely.

"I wasn't really, not really, I just... I missed you and I was desperate for someone to talk to and -" Remus shook his head.

Sirius sighed. "I'm sorry that I wasn't there."

"You would've been," Remus whispered.

Sirius reached up, cupping Remus's cheek with his palm, staring into Remus's eyes. "I am now," he whispered, his thumb moving over Remus's lips.

Remus nodded. 

Sirius stared into his face for several long moments, making sure he was alright, then he looked around the room, eyes darting to the window and he muttered, reaching into the pocket on his chest, taking out the shrunken bag that contained his folded clothes, unshrunk it, took out his leather jacket's pocket and fished about, found what he wanted and withdrew... A moment later a full size record player sat on the table in the middle of the mostly empty, run down house.

"So anyway, to make it up for me missing that, I do believe that you and I - we need to listen to Bowie and smoke some of our new back yard."

"Sirius!" 

He grinned, "For extra, extra credit in herbology, obviously."