Boys in Space

[starfishstar]

BOYS IN SPACE

Summary: "Talent shows and having cute hair and tragic/hot boys in outer space" (the Remus/Sirius AU). A.k.a. it's 1974…in a rather alternate universe.

Characters: Sirius, James, Remus / Pairing: Remus/Sirius

Words: ~850

Rating: PG, I guess, for David Bowie lyrics

Notes: This is a silly little giftfic I wrote for stereolightning – friend, beta, and comrade-in-pondering-writing-questions – who's hard at work on her first original novel (go, stereolightning!) She mentioned to me that this current novel is the longest project she's ever worked on, though she did write a short "novel" in seventh grade, which she described as being "about middle school preoccupations like talent shows and having cute hair and tragic/hot boys in outer space."

I said, that sounds like it should be a Marauders-era Remus/Sirius AU! …and then I ended up writing it. So, this won't make all that much sense beyond that, but I giggled at the writing of it, so maybe you'll enjoy it, too. (This is in the grand tradition of cute, fluffy Remus/Sirius pining fics, of which I have read and enjoyed so many over the years, but until now never written!)

Story:

“Come on, Sirius,” James said, practically whingeing. “Are you going to come work on our song for the talent show or not?”

It was the third-to-the-last day of the Hogwarts annual starship-borne field trip to outer space, which meant that the annual end-of-field-trip talent show was only two days away.

Never tearing himself away from the sight of his own reflection in their bunkroom’s mirror, Sirius moaned, “But my hair.”

“Your hair is fine, you dork,” James said. “Our song, though, is not fine.”

“My hair,” Sirius said again, quieter this time.

He prodded at it again with his wand, but it kept just…lying there. Being sort of shaggy-ish. Not arrestingly dramatic. Those were the exact words Remus had used yesterday about Eric Rawlin’s hair. Arresting and dramatic.

“‘M not dramatic enough,” Sirius mumbled.

“You’re plenty dramatic, believe me,” James grumbled back at him. “One more time, Sirius: Do you want to practise our song for the talent show, thus actually being able to demonstrate, y’know, talent, or do you want to sit there like a doofus and let Rawlin and his lot take first prize?”

Sirius’ head snapped up. “Rawlin?”

“Yeah. They’re having their rehearsal on the Hufflepuff deck right now, just like we should be doing here, if you’d stop staring at your own ugly mug in the mirror.”

“I agree with the hot one,” the mirror said to Sirius. “Frankly, scrunching up your face like that isn’t doing you any favours.”

“What??” Sirius spluttered. “Since when is James the hot one?”

The mirror gave a creaky little shudder that was probably the mirror equivalent of a shrug. Well, the outer space mirror equivalent. Physics seemed to work a little differently out here, even with powerful gravity spells going.

Sirius squawked with indignation, but James just laughed.

“Now will you come rehearse?” he demanded. “Whoever you’re trying to impress, it’s looking like you’ve got a better chance of doing it with your singing than your brooding good looks.”

“It’s tragic,” Sirius told the room at large. “It’s just really tragic.”

“Maybe if you’re fourteen,” wheezed the ORCA (Oxygen Recycling and Conjuration Apparatus) in the corner.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Fluffing his dark hair a last, desperate time with his fingers, Sirius gripped the neck of his bass guitar and followed James onto the makeshift stage by the captain’s control deck.

The depths of space and the endless stars whizzed past the enormous glass viewing field behind them. This was the last evening of the trip; tomorrow they would be back at Hogwarts, back on Earth.

Rawlin and all those Hufflepuffs had been all right, maybe, but “Rocket Man” wasn’t exactly an original choice for an outer space talent show.

The Slytherins, of course, would never have deigned to play a Muggle song, no matter how much the rage that was these days, but their cover of the wizard rock song “Only Magic on the Moon” was plenty creepy.

The Ravenclaws’ “Amoureuse” had been a clever way to slip in an outer-space nod (“I feel the rainfall of another planet…”) but their delivery was pedestrian. Little enough competition there.

Now James and Sirius, as the duo for Gryffindor, were up. Sirius scanned the audience. Where was Remus? There was Pete, in with the other Gryffindors, but where had Remus got to?

Sirius shook his head to clear it and looked over at James. They’d argued for days about which “Ziggy Stardust” song to play, but it had never been a question of whether or not they would play Bowie. It was always going to be Bowie.

They nodded at each other and James counted off.

“I’m an alligator, I’m a mama-papa coming for you.”

James took the verses and Sirius would take the choruses, that was the plan.

“I’m the space invader, I’ll be a rock ‘n’ rollin’ bitch for you.”

Glancing up from his concentration on the bass strings as James sang, Sirius saw McGonagall’s eyebrows climbing higher and higher, and he couldn’t help but grin. Dumbledore’s policy: He didn’t censor what the students were allowed to sing.

Sirius’ turn now.

“Keep your ‘lectric eye on me, babe,” he sang.
“Put your ray gun to my head.”

FINALLY, there was Remus, edging in up front near the stage, a big smile on his face as he looked up at them.

“Press your space face close to mine, love.”

No, it was Sirius he was looking at.

“Freak out in a moonage daydream, oh yeah!” Sirius almost slipped up and sang, Moony. A Moony daydream.

James took the verse.

Sirius took the chorus.

“Press your space face close to mine, love.
Freak out in a moonage daydream, oh yeah!”

James went off into his guitar solo, but Sirius wasn’t paying attention to that anymore. He no longer cared if James got the notes right. He was too busy watching Remus.

Remus, who was looking right at him. Remus, who didn’t seem to care if Sirius’ hair wasn’t arresting or dramatic. Remus, who was smiling as if Sirius were singing the song just for him.

Maybe he was.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

The End

Comments

[huldrejenta.livejournal.com]

Heeeeee,
this was so adorable! Loved it :) Of course Sirius was singing just for you, Remus, you silly boy :)
And it's always such a treat when there's Remus/Sirius on my flist; that's not nearly often enough ;)

[starfishstar]

YAY, so glad you enjoyed it!

There's actually another (much longer, much more serious/dramatic) Remus/Sirius AU coming from me, but progress has been slow because I'm trying to keep my focus mainly on my own original novel/story/whatever-it-is... Sometime soon-ish, though!

[huldrejenta.livejournal.com]

I like the sound of that :)
I didn't know you wrote R/S - you should've joined rs-games;), and I didn't know you're writing an original story as well. How exciting! What's it about?

[starfishstar]

Ha, yeah, the thing is, I don't actually write Remus/Sirius... or didn't, until now!

I've always enjoyed reading R/S stories, but as a fic writer, my interest is mostly in exploring character interactions within the canon framework, and for better or worse, I never saw any evidence of Remus and Sirius as a couple in canon. (Or of ANY gay couple, except those tiny hints of Dumbledore/Grindelwald... Seriously, JKR, in all those thousands of pages, you couldn't deviate even once from heteronormative narratives? Grr.)

Anyway, so by default all my stories have ended up being either gen or about straight couples, and Remus/Sirius will only ever happen for me in AUs...but what a fun AU they make! (I did think for a moment about joining the R/S games, but didn't trust that inspiration would strike me when I needed it, since I'd never written them before.)

And actually...I find Remus-and-Sirius-as-friends at least as fascinating to explore... I've got lots more of that coming, too, in the huge R/T story I've been working on for years(!). In some ways, that story is as much about Remus and Sirius' friendship as it is about Remus and Tonks' developing relationship.

The original story... Oh, I don't even know. I guess it's kind of about moving back to a hometown after a long time, and revisiting the past as a way to be able to move forward, but it's been proving very difficult! The idea is that I'm trying to write something in time for a submission deadline, but I may or may not actually try to continue it into a full novel after that.

Anyway, overly long answer, but I'm always happy to chat with you about Remus/Sirius stuff :-)

[huldrejenta.livejournal.com]

It's so fascinating and cool the way we get inspired by different things :)

I'm the complete opposite when it comes to writing fanfiction. I love reading fics that are "missing scenes" from canon, or try to explain canon events, or give us some background for canon events. But when it comes to writing, that just doesn't trigger my imagination. At least not usually. My plotbunnies more often than not jump up from imagining how the characters would behave and react put in a different setting, or with different experiences. Or it can be various behind-the-scenes stuff/pairings that probably (and in some cases certainly) isn't what JKR wanted to put in the text, but that can be read there nevertheless.

R/S Games was lot of fun last year, and I'm participating this year as well. Maybe I can talk you into joining next year, lol ;)

I totally agree that Remus & Sirius are fun and interesting to explore as a friendship as well as a romantic pairing - and I find quite often that the friendship aspects are an important part of R/S stories as well; the fact that they were very close friends first, or focus on the friendship between all of the Marauders and Lily.

Good luck on your original story! I like your description, it's a fascinating scenario :)

[starfishstar]

That IS interesting – what inspires us in terms of reading and in terms of writing...and how those two things can be entirely different.

Ooh, yes, feel free to nudge me to join the R/S Games next year (or any other R/S events)! Maybe by then I'll have written them enough that I'll feel more capable of it. Or not. Who knows!

Thanks for the encouragement on the original story! I'm about to tackle a next draft of the first few chapters...

[huldrejenta.livejournal.com]

I will :)

The next R/S event after R/S Games is probably rs_small_gifts.

[starfishstar]

Cool, good to know!

[shimotsuki.livejournal.com]

Aww! Hilarious and adorable at the same time. Love the idea of McGonagall worrying about the lyrics (and possibly secretly enjoying the music?). Also the cheeky mirror, and the ORCA. But of course the soulful eye-gazing at the end takes first place.

[starfishstar]

Thank you!! Heh, yes, it wouldn't be Hogwarts, would it, without McGonagall being concerned about things, and Dumbledore being indulgent of the students?

And thanks about the "ORCA," glad it works, because you wouldn't believe how long it took me to come up with something that both made sense and made an animal acronym!