I Want You to Want Me

Chapter Nine: Careless Whisper

An innocuous-looking table sat alone in the middle of a roped-off area in the parking lot, with piles of discarded papers, fliers, flattened cardboard boxes, and other such fire fodder set atop and around it. Remus surveyed the scene with a prospective eye. Of course, the table had never done anything to deserve its fate; in fact, it had served perfectly well as a piece of furniture meant to hold things on its surface. It just so happened that it was the one a certain Preston Charles Chapman III had claimed, and so it had to burn.

Satisfied with the potential of the blaze to come, Remus turned back to the party. Logan was just returning with three drinks in hand, offering one to Janus and another to Remus, who chugged the entire thing at once.

"Someone's excited," Janus teased, sipping his own beer before making a disgusted noise.

"Do you not like it?" Logan asked.

Janus shrugged and took another sip, though he still made a face. "It's not horrible, but I would prefer literally anything else."

"I'll take it! I can get you something else, too," Remus offered, holding out his empty hand.

Janus gave him a smile with an expression in his eyes that Remus didn't dare call warm. He passed the cup over, and Remus drained it just as quickly as his first.

The look in Logan's eyes as he watched the little scene between them could only be described as disappointed but not surprised. "Janus, you do realize Remus is not here to serve your every whim, correct?" he asked, frowning.

"Whyever not?" Janus jutted his chin out and turned his head away with affected arrogance. "He offered. Who am I to refuse such gentlemanly behavior?" He turned back to Remus. "You're a real peach, darling. I'll have a cocktail, thank you."

"Remus is not a fruit."

"Maybe not in the traditional way, but I'm sure he could pull it off if he tried."

"What are you talking about? How does one 'pull off' becoming a foodstuff?"

"I'd say you pull off being a snack exceptionally well."

"What?"

Remus walked away, shaking his head and smiling at their silly bickering. He was definitely going to miss it, but at least he had the rest of the night to enjoy it while he could. His smile never faltered as he made his way through the small crowd to the minibar, waving to the various club workers who called out to him.

Remus barely heard what they were saying, nor what he replied with as he grabbed various bottles of liquor and poured them into a shaker. He was too busy lingering on the implications of Logan's words. Remus is not here to serve your every whim. He didn't need the reminder that he would probably never see them again after tonight, that Janus and Logan were both perfectly happy in their relationship without him.

Enough. Remus mentally shook himself. He had to focus on the present before it slipped away without him noticing, just like everything else he'd ever loved.

He did catch when Pryce told him Charlie had gone inside earlier and hadn't returned yet when he asked after them. Remus thanked him and the others for putting up with him and headed back to where Logan and Janus were standing, cocktail in hand as he waited on the edge of their relationship.

They were still flirting when he got back. Janus was leaning into Logan's space, fluttering his eyelashes as he pouted up at the taller man. He must have lost whatever argument they'd been having and was trying to charm Logan into letting him win. Not that Logan ever had, in Remus' memory, but it never stopped Janus from trying.