“Gold…no, silver…no, gold. Yes, I think. Definitely…no. No, silver. Yes. No. I don’t know.”

“What the HELL are you doing?!” Remus finally exploded from his bed.

“Nothing,” Sirius answered, knowing that would force Remus out of hiding, which was exactly what he wanted. Sure enough, Remus’ head appeared from behind his bed hangings, a bit of ink smudged down the side of his nose.

Purple ink, Sirius noted with pride. Glam’s finally taking its hold on Remus J. Lupin. All part of my master plan. 

“Nothing my…” Remus’ face flushed a little because he was about to say arse, and Sirius had a nice arse, he had a gorgeous arse, and Remus didn’t want to seem like he was staring at it, so instead he said, “…foot.”

The entire progression of that statement was blatantly obvious to Sirius as he watched Remus’ face in the mirror, but harassment would only drive him back to homework, not draw him out as Sirius hoped.

“It’s only a minor fashion emergency,” Sirius sighed instead, turning his body halfway towards Remus and tilting his head for maximum dramatic effect. “Can I get your opinion?”

“But I’m not into glam like you all,” Remus protested, despite his queer ink. “I won’t be able to help, probably.”

“C’mon, Moony,” Sirius wheedled, raising eyelinered lashes beseechingly. “You can give me your non-glam opinion, I won’t mind, honestly.”

“You’re such a girl,” Remus mumbled as he climbed out of his bed, but Sirius noted the quick flush when he’d asked for Remus’ help.

Remus came to stand beside Sirius, just that tiny bit too close, close enough that Sirius caught the scent of chocolate, and then noticed that Remus’ lips were just a shade too dark.

“Re, are you wearing lip gloss?” Sirius raised an eyebrow.

“It’s cold, my lips are chapped!” Remus protested, putting a hand up to his mouth and wiping at it immediately. “Besides, it isn’t gloss, it’s lip balm.”

“They don’t make lip balm in flavors!” Sirius laughed. He reached out with a hand to brush a finger against Remus’ lower lip before Remus could move away, then rubbed it on his own lip. His tongue darted out to taste the alleged balm, sharply pleased that it was indeed chocolate lip gloss.

“Explains what happened to the one I lost,” he said breathily, heart pounding at his own daring.

“It’s not…” Remus started up, his momentary flicker of something replaced by a closed expression. Sirius knew when enough was enough. Occasionally.

“Never mind anyway,” he shrugged it off. “Tell me what you think about this.”

He held up two plastic vials for Remus to see. One was full of silver glitter, and the other had gold.

“I should’ve known it would be about glitter,” Remus sighed.

“Everything’s about glitter really,” Sirius grinned, letting his hair flop into his eyes in that casual way that made Hufflepuffs fall off their chairs in Transfigurations. “Which do you think? And don’t tell me just to try one on, because if I don’t like it you can’t get it off and then I’ll have to change and I’ve already done that twice and I’ve decided that today is definitely a Blue Shirt Day, cause it matches my eyes, y’see and…”

“All RIGHT!” Remus cut him off, a grin lifting one corner of his mouth rebelliously. “I’ll pick, just shut up a moment and let a lad think…”

Sirius felt a little thrill of electricity slip down his spine as Remus ran eyes over his outfit, from the faded flared jeans he’d had to use a Zippering Charm on to get closed, past the deep blue shirt that matched his eyes exactly and was just a bit too short to touch the jeans, up across his own lip-glossed lips and eyelinered baby blues, to his hair which he’d decided to leave loose today and was slipping over his shoulders in thick caresses.

“Silver,” Remus answered at last.

“Knew it,” Sirius grinned, feeling far too warm. “You always pick silver, funny, isn’t it?”

“Why funny?” Remus asked. “I like silver.”

“Cause you’re allergic to it,” Sirius said immediately, heedless of tact. “You don’t think it’s a bit odd that you like things to be the color of the stuff that might kill you? It’d be like Peter wearing peanut-colored trousers…”

“That’s the nature of people, though,” Remus cut him off, his grin fading to a small smile, “to want what they can’t have. Not like the wolf, while we’re on the topic. Wolves take what they want.”

“Does that mean that Werewolves can’t want what they take?” Sirius asked, trying to joke Remus back into his grin. “Or that they have what they can’t want?”

“Take your pick,” Remus shrugged with one shoulder, and Sirius cursed himself as he realized he’d driven the conversation in exactly the wrong direction, as usual.

“Look, it’s not the same anyway,” Sirius backpedaled furiously, “because you look absolutely great in silver, and nobody really looks good wearing peanut…”

“Stop trying to be so clever and put your glitter on, you’re going to be late,” Remus rolled his eyes and tapped the silver glitter again.

Sirius unscrewed the cap of the glitter and shook the vial over his head, a cloud of sparklies fluttering down to stick on every surface of his body. He dropped his hand and gave himself a good shake, getting the loose stuff to settle.

“Only used half the vial,” Remus commented idly, “not up to your usual standards at all.”

Sirius just grinned, then advanced on Remus, wiggling the vial threateningly.

“No!” Remus backed away, throwing his arms over his head. “No, Sirius, I mean it, don’t you DA…”

The last words of the threat cut off as Remus got a mouthful of silver glitter. And a shirtful and a faceful and a hairful…a Remusful of glitter, in short.

Sirius admired his handiwork while Remus coughed a bit and glared at him. Every breath Remus took made the line of his body shimmer; when Remus tossed his hair in irritation, every brown strand caught the light and made it part of him, made him glow Remus.

Sirius swallowed an ooh, pretty just before it hit the air.

“I’m going to kill you,” Remus announced calmly, turning to toss his reading glasses onto his bed. Sirius was already more than halfway down the stairs before Remus got out the door, whooping like a glittery maniac.