Sirius gets the jitters sometimes.
He doesn't know if it's an underlying issue or he had eaten too much sugar. One thing's for sure, he just needs to move.
May it be tapping his foot or scratching his quill on parchment, Sirius needs to be doing something at all times. It's as if there were ants under his skin, itching.
Right now, he tries focussing on the conversation. Lily is saying something about Hogsmeade weekend. Marlene is adding on the list of restaurants we all have to try. Sirius is trying, he really is, to follow their train of thought.
Next to him, Remus was quiet. Like how most chats go, Remus prefers to listen until he has a solid opinion. And he grew to be damn good at it. Sirius would agree.
Sirius bounces his knee. Since foot tapping would disrupt the conversation, he resorts to knee bouncing. Silent yet effective to let the jitters out. At this point, his brain is firing off "Let's go Let's go let's go !" signals even when he consciously knows they're not going anywhere.
"Yeah, I was thinking we should all go to the Weird Sisters concert near there." Mary says.
Sirius nodds enthusiastically, pointing at her to emphasize his agreement. "Yes ! I'll drag you lot with me."
Remus chuckles at his antiques. "Sure, we'll see how strong you are Black."
Sirius scoffs, flexing his biceps. "Have you seen this guns ?!"
Dorcas gags and Sirius throws a carrot to her face. James wave their petty fight away and get the discussion going.
Unbeknownst to anyone else, Sirius' knee bouncing persisted. He curses inwardly. He thought the itch would go away once he physically did something.
His brain was practically buzzing.
"Oh look at the plate, food looks good. That's not the only thing looking good. Remus, so cute. Smells nice too. You know what else would smell nice ? Chicken wings. Will have to go to the elves. Ask some for Remus later. Wait what was I thinking ?"
Remus was talking to Marlene. Sirius thought he wouldn't notice his agitation. Without missing a beat of their talk, Remus puts his palm on Sirius' knee. Successfully stopping the tapping.
With one touch, Sirius' mind went silent. He stares at the hand squeezing his left knee, an attempt to subtly comfort him.
Remus didn't spare him a glance. The werewolf moved on with the conversation as if this whole hand-on-knee thing is normal. "It isn't !" Sirius' brain wants to scream.
Sirius follows the arm upwards. Thread by thread, up "the grandpa sweater" Remus was wearing. He remembers how the werewolf huffs annoyedly each time he calls the beloved sweater that. It's not his fault the thing looked like it aged a good 70 years old and had no teeth.
When he reaches his head, he was met with the boy's' nape. Remus was talking to someone beside him, he didn't even notice Sirius' tapping gone.
Sirius observed the 3 miscoloured lines on his neck then the moles and the brown hair. He wondered if Remus knew how he affects Sirius. He was a force so great, he alone stopped the jumping neurons from firing away.
His heart fluttered at how calm Remus was about it too. Compare that to how he was brought up, where knee bouncing is equivalent to a cane, Remus showed him he was lovable. His heart blew up in a pink glitter cloud.
As he thought that, Remus' thumb caresses his knee. Another silent tactic to distract Sirius from his jitters. He's happy Remus didn't speak up about it. Heck he knows the group will snatch this rare chance of teasing Sirius like a thief.
He just needed to ground himself and he's so, so glad Remus was there to anchor him.
"Oof !" Remus' air was knocking out of his lungs.
Mary looks over at him, concerned at his sudden gasp. When she sees the arms around his waist and a certain Black struggling to hook his chin over Remus' shoulder, she smirks and rolls her eyes. Typical Black-Lupin behaviour.
"You alright ?" Remus murmurs, loud enough only for them.
Sirius nodds, chin digging in the grandpa sweater. "M'okay now."
"Jitters ?"
"Hmm." Sirius humms, sighing. "You know."
Remus turns his head in his limited range. He presses a chaste kiss on Sirius' temple earning a cute "mrrp" from the latter.
"Yeah, I know."
From behind them, Marlene coughs like it was her last.
Sirius groans.
"Merlin's underwear...SILENCE McKinnon!"
Remus chuckles, kissing his head again.
Yeah, typical Black-Lupin behavior.
