Between Firelight and Friendship

                                    

                                          
It was a quiet night in the Gryffindor common room, well past curfew, and only the embers of the dying fire cast their flickering glow across the room. James sat slouched in an armchair, his glasses slipping down his nose as he absentmindedly tossed a chocolate frog wrapper toward the fire. Across from him, Sirius was sprawled out on the rug, one arm propped under his head and his eyes half-closed, looking more peaceful than usual.
The castle felt particularly empty, with Remus and Peter having already gone to bed. That left just the two of them, neither one in any hurry to leave.
"You know, Prongs," Sirius said suddenly, breaking the quiet, "you're lucky I put up with you."
James looked over, raising an eyebrow. "Oh, really? I seem to remember saving your neck more than once, Black."
Sirius grinned. "Well, maybe. But you're still insufferable."
James rolled his eyes, but he couldn't help the smile tugging at his lips. "Insufferable? Just because I'm brilliant at Quidditch, a master of charm, and irresistibly handsome?"
Sirius let out a bark of laughter. "Oh, please. You're also incredibly annoying."
James leaned forward, resting his chin on his hand. "And you're not?"
Sirius shrugged, tilting his head back as he looked up at the ceiling. "Touché." A moment of comfortable silence settled over them, both of them just sitting, breathing in the quiet warmth of the fire.
But then Sirius looked over, his grey eyes thoughtful, lingering on James a little longer than usual. There was something different in the way he looked at him tonight, a rare softness in his expression that wasn't often there in the midst of their usual antics.
"You know, you're not half-bad either, James," Sirius said quietly, a small, almost shy smile breaking across his face.
James's heart stuttered a bit, caught off guard by the unexpected sincerity. For all of Sirius's wit and laughter, these softer moments between them were rare but precious. He leaned a little closer, his gaze falling on Sirius's lips for just a second before he caught himself and looked back up into those stormy grey eyes.
They stayed like that, each daring the other to make the next move. And then, almost as if by instinct, James leaned forward, closing the small distance between them.
Sirius didn't pull away. Instead, he closed his eyes, his hand reaching up to rest lightly on the back of James's neck. It was a soft, hesitant kiss, a promise of something that didn't need words. A hesitant kiss that wouldn't even slightly damage their relationship.
When they pulled apart, neither of them said anything for a long time. They just sat there, caught in the glow of the fire, as though the whole world had stopped.
"Guess we're not just mates, then, are we?" James murmured with a half-smile.
Sirius's eyes sparkled with a rare vulnerability as he leaned back, a small grin spreading across his face. "Guess not, Prongs. We're brothers, like always. A kiss doesn't change that." Because it didn't, James was still madly in love with Lily and Sirius was still happily a bachelor.
And in the quiet, they simply sat together, savouring the moment, wrapped in the warmth of each other's presence and the silent understanding that something between them had shifted.