Learning Japanese

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Story Notes:
Jan 17, 2006
The tapping was a distraction but Remus refused to look up from his book. He always gave in, it seemed, and he refused to let Sirius win this time. “Stop it.”

“Whatcha reading?” Sirius asked for what had to be the hundredth time in the last hour. Ever since he’d come back to the dorm whining about Quidditch practice being canceled due to the rain, he’d been tapping, poking, and make more noise than any other person Remus had ever heard.

“Japanese poetry,” he said tightly, wishing that Peter was there to distract Sirius with a game of chess or even that James could pry himself away from Evans long enough to plot some prank or another.

“You don’t know Japanese,” Sirius pointed out smugly. “That means you’re just looking at the book to annoy me.”

“Yes, because everyone in the world was born simply for the amusement of Sirius Black,” he muttered as he turned the page of his book.

“Weren’t they?” Sirius asked in a tone that indicated he might not actually be joking.

“I must have missed the memo,” Remus told him as he looked at the second book open before him, trying to find the word he was searching for.

There was more rustling from Sirius’ bed that Remus did his best to ignore despite his curiosity. “If you can’t even speak the bloody language, why are you reading the book unless it’s a deliberate attempt at annoying me?”

“I’m learning the language,” Remus informed him mater-of-factly, “hence this dictionary.”

“Hence?” Sirius snorted. “You’re such a git, Moony.”

“Hence is a perfectly good word, Padfoot,” Remus said tightly as he lost his place in the poem and resisted the urge to throw his book at Sirius.

“It’s a poncy word,” Sirius declared, followed by more rustling. “Put down the book and pay attention to me.”

“Whining wasn’t attractive when you were a self-centered eleven year-old and it’s certainly not now that you’re a self-centered seventeen year-old,” Remus told him as he scowled at his book. He would not let Sirius win this time. He was strong enough to resist. Really, he was.

“We have the entire dorm to ourselves and you’re reading a bloody book in some stupid fucking language you don’t even understand,” Sirius pointed out with just a hint of frustration. “And people say you’re the smart one?”

Before Remus could reply, fabric covered his head. “You prat,” he muttered as he pulled the cloth away. It took him a moment to realize it was Sirius’ shirt. He blinked at it stupidly for a moment before something else was thrown at him. As soon as he recognized his friend’s uniform trousers, he looked up with wide eyes.

Sirius was lying on his bed looking every bit like some ancient God waiting to be worshipped. He was naked save for a tartan kilt that barely covered his bits. His long hair was mussed in the perfected ‘you know you wanna shag me’ style it had taken him weeks to learn years ago and there was a lazy grin on his full lips as he ran his finger lightly down his chest to the top of the kilt.

It was then that Remus noticed the various spots of ink covering Sirius’ nude skin. “Wha---“ He cleared his throat and rubbed slightly against the bed as he stared at Sirius and that bloody kilt.

“As if I’m going to be second best to some stupid book,” Sirius muttered as he stretched languidly. “If you want to learn Japanese, you really need something better to read than some floffy book of poetry, Moony. I’ve decided it’s my duty as one of your best friends to give you a more enjoyable tableau to study.”

Remus scrambled off the bed, not even bothering to conceal his reaction to Sirius in a kilt, as, really, who wouldn’t be aroused at seeing that? He looked at the spots of ink and realized they were words. In Japanese. He slowly grinned as he crawled onto the bed and ran his fingers lightly over one word high on Sirius’ thigh.

“Tableau?” he repeated as he arched a brow and let his hand drift higher until it disappeared beneath the edge of the kilt. “You’re such a git, Padfoot.”

“You’re a fucking tease, Moony,” Sirius accused as his back arched when Remus’ fingers wrapped around his stiff flesh. “’I’m leaning Japanese so leave me alone’ like some silly girl all annoyed because I had practice.”

Remus pushed the kilt up and laughed when he saw ink covering the more intimate parts of Sirius as well. He leaned down, his breath a whisper against bare skin as he said, “Padfoot, I am learning Japanese,” right before he licked the word away.

The End