Chapter Text
This was Sirius's idea of hell. He knew it would be and yet he came anyway. Everyone said it would be a good thing for Harry. Molly and Alice, in the parents' group. His therapist, and the social worker. It was necessary for him and Harry to bond.
So here he was, for a whole week at the Hogsmeade Farm and Resort. It was quaint, nestled in the mountains, the nearest town almost an hour a way. But that was part of the charm. Sirius knew people came to places like this to escape the city, but he never felt that inclination. He even liked staying in the city when everyone else cleared out. But now he had to think of someone besides himself. Harry would have a blast running around, swimming, feeding the animals. It didn't matter how out of place he felt at places that catered toward families. Though, as the social worker reminded them, they were a family now.
Harry had been clamoring to get out of the car for the last hour, but once he was unbuckled, Harry attached himself to Sirius's leg.
There was a crowd of kids on the front lawn, playing some sort of game and a group of adults watching. Sirius pushed up his aviator sunglasses and locked the car.
"C'mon Harry, let's go check in."
"I have to go potty." Harry informed him in a pouty sort of voice.
"All right…we won't be able to in the parking lot, so let's go inside." They headed inside to the main building where there was a lobby with several rocking chairs and some paintings of roosters on the walls.
Sirius made his way over to the front desk, which was adorned with a wooden cow that had "Welcome!" written on it. A woman approached him with a big smile. “Hello! Welcome to the Hogsmeade Farm and Resort. Have you been here before?”
“No, we haven’t.”
“We’re so glad you’re here.” the woman chirped at him. She handed him a menu, an activity list and the room key, all while Harry was tugging at his hand. “And here’s your key. Lunch is being served right now, so you and your son can go grab something to eat.”
The words ‘your son’ gave him pause for a beat, but he didn’t correct her. He wanted this interaction over as quickly as possible.
“All right Harry…let’s go find the bathroom…” he said, glancing at the woman again.
“Just out here in the lobby, to your right.” she supplied.
“Thank you.”
“Enjoy your stay!”
Sirius ushered Harry to the bathroom, then out to the lawn, where the staff had several grills going. He took two plates and filled them up. “I want a hotdog, Padfoot.” Harry announced. Sirius closed his eyes for a moment as he was reminded of the last barbecue he’d had with Harry’s parents before…
Anyway.
He looked around, and most of the tables were filled with larger groups. No one seemed to only be here in a group of two. A family with two women, a man and a little boy with blue hair were getting up, so Sirius grabbed Harry’s hand and led him over to the table. Sirius got Harry situated, and then sat down across from him.
“Want to sit next to you.” Harry said.
“Oh…alright. Come over here, then.” Sirius said, holding out an arm. He’d gotten quite adept at eating one handed, since Harry wanted to be close to him more often than not. Their social worker had assured him that was normal, after suffering such a loss, Harry needed reassurance that Sirius was always there. But Harry’s clinginess sometimes wore on him, but he never had the heart to tell the little boy he needed space.
When they were finished eating, Sirius cleared their space. “Let’s go get the stuff from the car and then we can go swimming…what do you think?”
“Yay! Pool!” Harry said, enthusiastically.
***
“Did you put sunscreen on Teddy?” Remus asked.
“Not yet.” Tonks replied, pushing a strand of blue hair out of her face. “Teddy, you have to stand still for mommy, ok?”
“No sunscreen.” The little boy pouted.
“Oh bud, you have to wear sunscreen or you’ll get a sunburn.” Remus said.
“No!”
“Well…those who don’t have sunscreen will get tickled!” Tonks said, lifting Teddy up and tickling him while he giggled uncontrollably. When she put him down, he obediently submitted to the administration of sunscreen.
“How’d you do that?” Remus asked, impressed.
“Magic.” Tonks said,with a wink. “Honestly, Remus…sometimes you just have to have a little fun.”
“Will you help with my sunscreen, cherie?” Fleur asked, coming out of the bathroom in a silver bikini.
Tonks ogled her tall, blonde girlfriend for a moment, before recovering enough to say, “Well, all of those dads are sure going to be staring at you , darling.”
“Well, good for them…because I am definitely not interested,” she said, chuckling and kissing Tonks.
Remus rolled his eyes. “Sorry to be the third wheel, but Teddy is ready to swim and so am I.”
“We’ll meet you there.” Tonks said, sliding her hands down Fleur’s narrow hips.
Remus left the women, and led Teddy to the pool, laden with towels and pool toys. “Which lounge chair should we use, Ted?”
“This one!” Teddy said, making a beeline for one of the lounge chairs.
“Sounds good.” Remus said, putting their stuff down on the chair.
The pool wasn’t crowded at the moment, there was only a man and another little boy there. That was relief; too many people in the pool stressed Remus out, especially since Teddy thought he was a better swimmer than he actually was. The women actually appeared more promptly than Remus expected and Tonks quickly got into the pool. She held out her arms and Teddy jumped in.
He turned his attention to the other man and the boy. His breath caught. The other man was pretty tall, though still a bit shorter than he was, with high cheekbones, black hair pulled back into a messy bun, and miles of pale skin. He couldn't see his eyes from here, but they were lined with thick lashes.
"What do you think, Remus…gay or straight?" Tonks asked, nodding toward the man. Remus couldn't take his eyes off of him. He was playing with the little boy in the pool. The black lines of tattoos snaked over his back and arms. The most prominent of which was a large flower and a horn with the date 10.31 underneath on his left shoulder.
"He's not even paying attention, cherie." Fleur said with a smirk.
"One way to find out." Tonks said, throwing their beach ball toward them. "Go get it back, Remus."
Remus rolled his eyes and got up.
"Excuse me…I'm just going to grab the beach ball…" Remus trailed off as the other man met his eyes. They were grey, almost silver, like the moon and they were all Remus could see. The air between them felt heavy and heated.
"Here! Padfoot, that's his ball," the little boy said, throwing the ball, and startling Remus out of his reverie.
"What? Yeah, sorry," the man, Padfoot?, said. He gave the ball to Remus. Remus's breath caught as their fingers brushed. Then the moment was over and he was turning back to his kid and Remus was walking back to his companions.
"Daddy, who's that?" Teddy asked when Remus got back.
"Yeah, Daddy…who's that?" Tonks asked with a wink.
***
At dinner, there were all these large tables and Sirius found their two person setup easily. As they walked to the table, they passed the guy from the pool. He was sitting with two women and the little boy. Sirius tried not to stare. He wasn't sure if he was staring at the beautifully golden man, or the fact that he was part of a group and had people to talk to. Sirius helped Harry into the chair and sat down across from him.
A few minutes later, the woman with blue hair approached their table. "Hey! We saw you two sitting here on your own. Want to join us?
"Oh…um. Sure." Sirius said. If nothing else, a little adult conversation would be welcome. "Whaddya say, Harry?"
"Hi Harry…we have a boy about your age. Want to meet him?" she asked Harry. Harry nodded solemnly.
The other little boy waved excitedly. "Hi, I'm Teddy. I'm four and a half."
"Me too. I'm Harry."
"Sit next to me, Harry." Harry looked at Sirius, who nodded encouragingly.
"So he's Harry…you are?"
"Oh sorry, Sirius. Sirius Black." Sirius said, shaking her hand.
"Nymphadora Tonks…but usually just Tonks. This is my girlfriend, Fleur and Remus, Teddy's dad."
"My pleasure." Sirius said, shaking hands all around. He held on to Remus's warm hand for a beat longer than strictly necessary.
They made their orders and Sirius looked around at the other adults. He had no idea how to do this anymore. Luckily, Tonks was outgoing enough for everyone involved and started asking Sirius about himself. He was surprised that he felt comfortable talking to her and telling her about himself.
"So…what do you do, Sirius?" she asked him.
"I'm an interior designer. How about you?"
"Me? I'm a detective. New at it though…just qualified a few months back." she replied.
"Congratulations."
"Thanks…Fleur is an investment banker…don't know why she's slumming it with a cop " Tonks said, with a wink in her girlfriend's direction. Fluer rolled her eyes and blew a kiss as she buttered a piece of bread and passed it to Teddy.
"Want some too, Harry?" Fleur asked, glancing at Sirius. He nodded.
"How about you, Remus…how do you spend your time?" Sirius asked.
"I'm a psychology professor." Remus said, quietly. Sirius could feel his eyes on him and he looked up, meeting Remus's gaze. There was a reason it was called eye contact, Sirius thought as he looked into Remus's honey colored eyes and time seemed to stop. Then Remus nervously ran his hand through his golden brown curls and the moment was over.
There was a bottle of bourbon on the table that the adults seemed to be sharing. "I didn't see any alcohol on the menu…" Sirius said.
"It's BYOB." Fleur said, pouring a measure from the bottle and sliding it to him. "Here. You look like you need it."
"Oh. I suppose I dropped the ball on that one."
"No worries, Sirius…we have more than enough." Tonks said. The waiter arrived with the food then, and everyone occupied themselves with cutting food for Harry and Teddy, and eating themselves.
At the end of the meal, Sirius was leading Harry away when Tonks said, "We'll see you for breakfast."
It was easier than Sirius expected settling Harry in bed. He switched off the light and turned on the baby monitor. Harry was probably too old for it, but he'd brought it knowing Harry sometimes had trouble sleeping still and he could hear him from the porch outside.
So Sirius took the monitor out to the porch and sank into one of the chairs. He took out a box of cigarettes. He knew he couldn't smoke inside, but he didn't see anyone else lighting up.
"Can I bum a smoke?" A now familiar voice asked. He looked up to see Remus standing over him.
"Least I can do…you shared your booze with me." Sirius said, offering Remus the box of cigarettes. Sirius watched as he fished one out with his long fingers and tried not to think about how those fingers would feel doing…other things. Focus, he told himself. You are at a family resort so you can bond with Harry. Just because Remus happens to be hot…
"Did Harry go down ok?" Remus asked as he sat in the chair next to Sirius.
"It took an extra story and some back rubs, but he went down." Sirius said. "The pool is usually a sure bet, but you know…first night in a new place…"
"Yeah, we got that out of the way last night." Remus said, easily. He lit up and took a long drag. "I don't smoke that much anymore," he said, exhaling the smoke. "There's something about doing it here, with all of these family types…"
"You mean you do it to piss people off?" Sirius said with the first genuine smile in what felt like a long time.
"You could say that. Or just to stand out more. This place is fun, but it's very heteronormative." Remus said, eyes sliding toward Sirius.
"I might have noticed. I also might have noticed that it was the queer family that adopted me and Harry." Sirius said, with a small smile.
"We kind of do stand out like sore thumbs. Tonks embraces it though."
"She seems to just…embrace life." Sirius observed.
Remus chuckled. "She does."
"I was so surprised she's a cop."
"I know, right? She just…is really good at solving puzzles, and good at getting information out of people. You might have noticed."
"I did. But I don't mind." Sirius said, leaning back in his chair, and taking another drag.
"So…what's your story? You didn't say much at dinner." Remus asked lightly. Normally Sirius bristled at questions like this, but he didn't mind coming from Remus.
"Well…ok. I am an interior designer. I live and work in New York City."
"Are you good at it?" Remus asked, an eyebrow raised.
"Yes." Sirius said. "I am."
"Good. I like the honesty…false modesty is annoying. Is Harry your son, or…"
Sirius sighed. "His parents were my best friends. They were killed nine months ago…" Sirius's voice was starting to break. Remus put his hand on his arm.
"I'm sorry. You don't have to tell me. It's ok." Remus said in a low voice.
Sirius pulled himself together. "Sorry…I don't talk about it much…"
"Sirius. Don't apologize."
"So anyway. I'm Harry's guardian and I'm in the process of adopting him." Sirius finished, rubbing at his eyes.
Remus nodded. They sat in silence for a few minutes. "Tonks and I decided to have Teddy…we figured it would be easier to co-parent since we're friends." Remus said, lighting two more cigarettes and handing one to Sirius.
"And is it?" Sirius asked.
"Usually." Remus said, with a smile.
"That's fair." Sirius said. They finished their cigarettes in comfortable silence.
"I better get back. Thanks for the smoke…and the conversation." Remus said, standing and stretching. Sirius tried not to stare.
"Sorry I laid that on you…" Sirius said.
"Sirius. It's really ok. I'll see you at breakfast."
"Good night, Remus."
Sirius went to bed early but he woke with a start in the middle of the night to Harry wailing, "Mommy, mommy." Holding back his own tears, he slipped into Harry's bed and held him close.
"I'm here, Harry…I'm not mommy, but I'm here." Sirius murmured, burying his face in Harry's damp hair. He could feel the little boy grasping at him until he was able to find rest again.