Fight For You // Wolfstar AU

Forever,

4 days later.
-

The sound of Remus drumming his fingers on the tabletop joined the symphony of the cafe's atmosphere; the buzz of the few voices and the clatter of ceramic mugs. His heart found itself beating erratically, in both scared and excited anticipation.

The longer Remus found himself sat in the crinkled-leather booth, the heavier regret weighed in his chest.
This was a bad idea. He thought to himself. He was on...was this a date? A date with a stranger. A guy, no less. In public.

His breathing choked and, in a fit of panic, he attempted to escape from his seat. In this fit, however, a voice jumped from the darkness of his mind and scolded him for bad etiquette.
He couldn't just leave because of nerves. The voice was right, Sirius didn't seem too bad. And James had seen it worthwhile to go on about him; slipping in his own pages of romance and gushing over his bird in the meantime.

Taking a deep breath, he settled back into the booth, picking at flakes of plasticky, red material by his leg.

"Hey...Remus."

At the sound of his name, he looked up. Wearing a hopeful smile, Sirius stood beside the table before sitting across from him. Dark bangs curled down the sides of his face and rust-coloured powder shadowed his eyelids.

Remus ignored any scolding from his inner voice and spoke, "You got my name, then?"

Sirius nodded with a bashful expression, "Yeah. And my cool-guy image would crumble if I told you how much I rehearsed it."

"Right."

"Honestly. If anything, it shows my dedication, doesn't it?" He questioned, pushing a curl behind his ear.

"Well...if you hadn't known it, I'd've probably had a reason to leave early."

A small laugh left Sirius mouth, but was interrupted by the shrill voice that had joined us.

Dark, choppy hair framed the woman's face. Her eyes trailed between us in suspicion.
"'You ready to order?"

Sirius looked away from her and back to Remus, unable to resist smiling, simply, at his presence.
"You can go first," he stated, turning his attention to removing his jacket.

"Oh." The woman (her nametag showing 'Karen') sounded.

Remus blinked heavily with a sigh, already realising the situation. Sirius looked to him in confusion and furrowed his eyebrows at 'Karen'.
"I'm sorry?"

The woman pursued her lips, evidently troubled by something.
"I'm afraid, I'm going to have to ask you to leave."

Racking out another sigh, Remus reached for his bag, prepared to run.

"We don't want other customers being subjected to this."

Sirius failed to catch Remus' eyes and instead took to watching his expression darken and twist in shame. His hands had a tight grip on the material of his shirt and his head hung dejectedly.

"I'm sorry, what exactly is 'this' ?" Sirius asked, aggression buzzing in the back of his throat.

"Excuse me-" Remus interjected in a small voice.

"I mean, if God wouldn't want to see this - then he wouldn't want us to, either."

"See what? What wouldn't your all-powerful God handle seeing?" Sirius argued. His gaze was harsh and his nails dug into the edge of the table.

"Devil-tempted sodomites such as yourselves." She spat, "we don't serve your kind here."
"Devi-?!"

"Excuse me!" Remus piped up, "I'm sorry...Karen. It's not what you think-"
"It never is, is it?" She interrupted, skeptically.

"Really. We're just old-friends. We haven't had time to catch up in a while."

"I'm sure. Really, you need to l-"

"I'm sorry, if you respect your God so much, you should leave the judging to him, shouldn't you?"

"You have-"

"No, your job is to take orders. Two coffees, please."

"But-"

Remus raised a finger to his lips, hushing her. Looking on in amusement, Sirius ushered the older woman away with his hand.

He caught eyes with his freckled companion, noting the flush across his nose and the regret behind his eyes.
"I don't know what that was, but it was brilliant," He complimented, " you didn't need to lie to her, though. It's none of her business."

Remus reclined deeper into his seat, the amber of his eyes glinting behind his hand that rubbed them in exhaustion. Sirius sat in silence and watched him, waiting for any response.

"Why did you say that?" Sirius inquired further.

"Just because," Remus responded, "because, I'd rather her be the tiniest bit embarrassed than hateful."

"Let her be hateful. Let anyone be hateful. It won't stop you, will it? You're here."

"L-"

The woman had returned with a disdained scowl, practically dropping the ceramics on the table before dashing away. God forbid she caught anything.

"Last time I had that outlook, I ended up with a broken nose and close-internal bleeding. People don't take to kindly to it." He stated, bringing the cup to his mouth. He tasted it, hesitant of any poison the woman looked willing to carry on her.

"Tell me about it. 'Been forced to take bullets for it. Won't stop me though." He entertained, leaning back and resting an arm on the back of the enclosed benches.

Remus' eyes widened and a sudden question of the man's sanity took place. He had considered him to be a little off in their first meeting, maybe he hadn't been completely wrong.

"I- what?"

"That gay-rights rally couple years back. Other side of town? Yeah, police didn't like me too much."

"But-"

"Then again, I was standing on the roof of their car."

He pointed his finger abstractly, somewhere deep in thought. He smiled as though the memory brought joy.

"You're insane, you realise that?"

He lifted the mug towards the grin on his face. He scoffed after taking a sip of the bitter substance.
"And you agreed to have coffee with me." He added, raising the mug in a toast.