GP - dreaming of a black christmas

[lcrpg_npc]

The repurposed railway arches that housed Beagle's bar and restaurant were decked in shades of black: black christmas trees glittering with sparkly and satiny black ornaments, black wreaths with perfectly tied bows, black garlands draping along the walls and bar, ribbons edging the long banquet benches in the restaurant dining room. A gentle snow seemed to fall from the ceiling, a specially designed lighting effect much more pleasant than the cold and wet that would've accompanied real snow. Christmas music played over hidden speakers, setting the mood without interfering with conversation.

The Kraken Black Christmas feast was a different spin on the holiday than you'd find most places, and yet, a christmas feast all the same. All the flavors of the season were there, both in the bar's specialty cocktails and in the feast itself, served banquet-style to those fortunate enough to get tickets - mulled wine, egg nog, roasts and stuffing and puddings, and so much more. Yet the food and drinks all shared the same theme as the decor, shades of black augmented with squid ink, charcoal, or black sesame seeds.

Guests had been encouraged to continue the theme with black festive attire, but it wasn't required, and spots of color could be found here and there along the table or mingling in the bar. There was one thing everyone could agree on, though. No matter how black the theme, the mood was anything but dark.

Comments

[wandandawolf]

Sirius had wrangled them both tickets. He'd charmed someone who knew someone who - there'd been something about a party, and a game of indoor cricket, and a pet otter? - Remus had lost track of the story at that point, if at all he'd been tracking it.

Suffice to say, they were both there. And Remus had been dressed for the occasion, with Sirius playing the role of extremely handsy tailor. It had taken more than few firm comments before Pads had stopped coming close to sullying the dressing room of the men's boutique in a rather uh, inappropriate fashion.

Pads was out amongst the crowd, and Moony was leaning against the wall with a cocktail in hand, fingers drumming against the glass. This close to a full moon, the sound felt percussive and hard in his ears. This close to a full moon, he could practically smell every single person in the repurposed railway setting, and the underlying stink of disinfectant and paint and years and years of disrepair that lurked underneath the present. Knowing where his lover was, and keeping a nostril on him, was practically child's play. This close to a full moon, he slept poorly and woke worse, stretched out thin and pounding. As the day drew on, energy built in him, a thrum of something clawing its way out, surging. He was almost high at nighttime: he felt like he could be awake for days.

He felt like he could kill everyone without blinking. Fortunately he still seemed to care enough for that to a problem.

"Ah, well, bottom's up," he said to himself, and sank the cocktail in a few gulps.

[harrowgate]

"Darling, pace yourself, the night is young," came a clear, familiar voice as Felix strolled up to Remus' place against the wall. He had refused to dress entirely in black, and instead wore a three-piece suit with purple satin details, a shirt of the exact same hue, and a tie that sported the same dark plum. He carried a highball glass in one hand with, of course, something black in it, though the glass itself was half lost amid the bright tattoos curling the wizard's fingers.

"Every time I find you, you're decorating the wall," Felix observed with a smile that was broad and warm, and rarely earned by anyone. "And while you make a truly fetching decoration, you do force one to travel far to find you. Hello again, Remus."

[wandandawolf]

Remus responded with a somewhat roguish grin of his own. "Oh, you don't expect to find the Picasso opposite the front door, do you?" He took a sip of his drink, admiring Felix's outfit. "I'm just making you demonstrate my value, Felix. I appreciate the effort." That tone was downright conspiratorial.

[harrowgate]

Felix stepped up and draped into an artful lean of one shoulder against the wall where Remus lingered. He was close, closer than necessary for public social occasion, but not quite imposing or looming. Not quite. "You're surely a work of art, especially in that waistcoat, darling. Absolutely dashing. It's a joy to see you out of tweed," he added, dipping his voice just enough to toy with suggestion. Just to see if Remus would let him.

[wandandawolf]

It was hard to loom anywhere near Remus' spindly 6'2" height, but Felix almost managed it. And Remus let him, of course, even as he turned a beatific smile to his friend. There was...something about Felix that made him - not exactly desirable, Remus' sexual appetite was typically parked in low gear - but something that sparked interest in Remus. Like a cat playing with his food.

"Oh, but Felix," he murmured, blatantly holding the other man's gaze, "I spend a lot of time slipping out of tweed. Surely you can imagine it." His tone was coy, almost conversational - but it was the almost that was likely to get him into trouble. Taking a sip of his drink, he chose his next words carefully, smile turning into something more comforting: "...Sirius chose the outfit, so I'll be sure to pass on your compliments to him. You both have a lot in common," he added, after a pause, and shook his head fondly: "Including seeing me out of tweed." Which was to say that he and Sirius had moved on from being 'just friends', and that was that.

[harrowgate]

Felix cultivated that something very carefully, but for the entirety of their friendship, Remus had hardly seemed to notice it. Indeed, Felix had nearly begun to suspect Remus might be straight or asexual. (It did not occur to him that his friend simply might not find him alluring.)

But this was a side of Remus that Felix had never witnessed... and it was fascinating. Felix leaned in as if he could catch these coy little flirtations on his tongue like snowflakes, for he considered them as rare and fleeting. His strange eyes lit, focusing in on Remus like a kitten with a new toy. "We've met. His taste is impeccable," Felix murmured, his gaze slithering down Remus' outfit, and his body, with that same intimately focused attention. "... and has improved since the last time we spoke, when he was your friend."

[wandandawolf]

"He's still my friend," Remus replied, a little lofty, "we practically grew up together. It's always strange how intimacies work out, but then you probably know better than me, Felix. I'm sure you have so many of them." His voice was an amused, low rumble: he wasn't quite calling Felix a slut, but it was close. Besides, from the look he was giving Felix, all wry and up-and-down, he didn't seem to have a problem with it - his boyfriend was a slut, after all.

"...It would be amusing to see you try and out-peacock one another, sometime."

[harrowgate]

Felix would not have used that word, certainly, so it was a very good thing Remus hadn't said it out loud. He shifted to lean his back against the wall rather than his hip, so that he could actually see the rest of the room and attempt to pick Sirius out of the black-clad crowd.

After a contemplative moment -- since Remus had opened the door a crack, after all -- Felix drawled suggestively, "Why compete, when it could be a collaborative effort?"

[wandandawolf]

Remus laughed a little at the suggestion, but his gaze wasn't insulting, more...sated, lips curved into something that wasn't quite a smirk. "Oh, Felix. Because I know him very well, and learning about you has become my second favourite activity of late." The small grin he shot Felix made it rather clear what his most favourite activity might have been. "It might start off collaborative, but you both like being the prettiest in the room, and getting the most attention."

Remus cocked his head and looked at Felix. The expression he offered wasn't exactly pleasant: it was the sort of bland and slightly mean thing you offered when you wanted to cow someone, with just the hint of a fake, cruel smile. "Besides," he summarised, voice a little low, if still somewhat casual, "guess who'd have to take you both in hand when you get all out of control?" He shook his head, more in mock sadness than in anger, making a slight 'tsking' noise twice with his lips. It was partly an old prefect routine, but it had the desired effect on Sirius most of the time. It would be interesting to see what it did to Felix.

[shannonteverius]

Shannon spotted Remus by the wall and wandered over to say hello. As Remus swallowed the inky liquid in his glass he asked, "Are you sure that's a good idea?"

[wandandawolf]

"Oh, certainly not," Remus murmured, before treating Shannon to a bright smile over the rim of his glass. "But that's what makes it interesting, surely." He licked his lips and paused for a few seconds, trying to identify the flavours on his tongue. "...I have absolutely no idea what it tastes like. Maybe some sort of fruit brandy, but tart. Have you tried one of the resident concoctions?"

[shannonteverius]

"I haven't found the courage," Shannon said with a shake of his head. "Though I am reassured to see that you haven't died from it yet," he teased.

[wandandawolf]

"Ah well, I've been told I have rather stupid levels of coverage in the past," Remus averred, but the memory of the Hat and all that amused him more than anything. He took another sip, and gave Shannon a sideways glance, choosing to remain against the wall and do some people watching.

"I'm rather resilient true, but look, you must be made of pretty stern stuff yourself." He flashed Shannon a brief grin and waited for just the right moment to follow up with a casual: "I mean, you are with Felix." That grin just got broader.

[shannonteverius]

Shannon laughed, his blue eyes sparkling. "I'm not sure that's resilience." His expression softened with a fond look as he thought of his lover. "I think they call it foolishness."

[wandandawolf]

"Fortune favours the foolish, isn't that the expression?" Remus furrowed his brow for a second. "No, it's the bold, sorry, misquoting my Virgil there."

Still: he reached over and gave Shannon a brief squeeze on the shoulder. "I can't talk, considering my bloke. Either way, we're very foolish, and very bold, and clearly very appreciate much appreciate being the adults in the room. Now why don't I get you a drink?"

[shannonteverius]

Shannon eyed Remus' drink warily, then took a breath to steel himself. "Why not? And then you can tell me more about this bloke of yours. Last time we spoke I hadn't heard that anything was official."

[wandandawolf]

Remus steered him towards the nearest bar with a gentle hand on his back. "One of...these, please," he said to the bartender, gesturing with his own half-drunk glass. He couldn't for the life of him remember the name of it. When it arrived, Remus paid, and gestured for Shannon to have a start, clearly curious at his reaction.

"As for my bloke, we haven't been official for that long. We were, however, decidedly unofficial. He was in love with me, and I was in love with him, and both of us too stupid to do anything about it. So it's a bit of a gift, really." Remus held up his glass in a toast: "Merry Christmas."

[toujours_impur]

"Is that how you want me tonight, then?" Sirius asked with a little grin as he finally made his way back to Remus' side with his latest drink, still probably smelling faintly of the bloke he'd just snogged by the bar underneath the stronger odor of rum and cider.

[wandandawolf]

"Oh, like I'm going to ruin the surprise," Remus told him, with a bit of husky amusement to his voice as he eyed Sirius quite obviously. He set down his own drink and hooked a finger in one of Sirius' belt loop, tugging the other young man closer to nuzzle, kiss and nip at that expanse of neck, being sure to layer his own scent on top of the alcoholic and more social scents that Sirius already had.

"It is Christmas," he murmured, tugging hard at Sirius' ear with his teeth, "and only good boys get presents, after all. Have you been good?" His nose ended up somewhere in Sirius' hair: every other inch of his body was close but not quite touching Padfoot, almost a challenge to see exactly how much he might gasp or clutch or plead. Even tucked away as they were against the wall, Remus wasn't hiding what he was doing: a few other patrons glanced their way and looked at them with a range of emotions from amusement to disgust.

[toujours_impur]

Sirius let his eyes drift half-closed, drinking in the attention, the feel of Remus' mouth on his neck, his teeth sending tingles of pleasure-pain down his spine practically to his damn toes. "Not hardly," he drawled, his body turning towards Remus, trying to press closer as instinctively as a sunflower turned to drink in the sunshine. He could care less what everyone else thought just then. Remus was touching him, was teasing him, and all was right with the world. "So what do bad boys get then?" He reached out to slide an arm round Moony's waist, wanting hi closer, the fractional distance between them far more maddening to him than more space would be--and he knew Moony knew it.

[wandandawolf]

Remus allowed Sirius to lean in, and pressed his own crotch to Sirius' hip. His fingers delved into Sirius' hair and tugged just enough to allow him to emerge from nosing Sirius' scalp, looking rather sated and pleased with himself, tongue flicking over his lips like he could still taste his love's salt and skin. "What does a bad boy like you always get, Sirius?" he teased, that hand moving down Sirius' back to rest just above the swell of that perfect backside. "You get me, of course. Might even let you unwrap me later."

[toujours_impur]

Sirius suppressed a low groan, squirming a little, wanting that hand to slip just a bit lower, damn it. "Mmm, might? Are you going to make me beg?" The light in his eyes as he asked made it clear that he would dearly love it if Remus was.

[wandandawolf]

"I won't if you're having a particularly unlucky night," Remus tut-tutted, and sounded like he rather expected Sirius might wreck things with his excitement. But the cautionary tone in his voice was softened by the twinkle in his eye. He pressed a kiss to Sirius' temple, and used his hand on Sirius' lower back to keep him in place as he rutted rather slowly against that hip, before pulling away and ensuring that all his clothes were quite in order, thank you very much.

"....But I rather think this is your lucky night. And as such, I'll let you decide if you'd rather go home, or cop off in the loo."

[toujours_impur]

As tempting as the instant gratification was, copping off in the loo would be over quickly and not involve nearly enough play, so with a deep breath and a small grin, Sirius ignored his pounding pulse, the way his skin itched to be touched by Remus, and said in a low voice, "Mmm, rather go home."

[wandandawolf]

"Do you think we should walk, m'dear? It's not far." His tone was light and his grin was ready, but his eyes, oh his eyes were positively malicious. He extricated himself from Sirius' touch, and so extricated Sirius from his own, moving to offer Sirius his arm instead, ever the gallant gentleman. "...You could probably do with the cool night air," he tutted, casting a look at the flush on Sirius' skin, eyes raking along his lover's neck.