Chapter Text
Remus was thankful for living in 2020. In the age of the internet, if you had no idea how to do something, with one click of a button you could after ten minutes. Though Remus had this advantage, he was the problem. He had watched different tutorials but he was still confused. He was visible to the cars passing by and must have looked absolutely stupid. He groaned and put his hand through his hair, planting flowers could not possibly be that hard.
"How does Frank do this?" Remus whispered aggressively to himself before crumbling onto the hard dirt. The man who had watched him dig up the time capsule was once again writing furiously in his pocket notebook, before spotting Remus and walking towards him. Remus started to panic. Why was this stranger walking toward him? Who was he? He did not have time to think before the stranger appeared in front of him and pulled down his hoodie to reveal a young man in a beanie and circular, gold-rimmed glasses.
"You look like you're struggling. May I help?"
Remus watched him suspiciously, wondering why a passerby would help someone like him with such a seemingly easy talk like planting flowers, "Er-I just don't know how to do this."
The man knelt in front of the plant pot, "I'm Peter. I live a couple houses down with my young daughter."
Remus was a bit more relieved when he learned the man was a father, " Remus Lupin” They shook hands, "How old is your daughter?"
Peter gestured over to a line of trees in which a girl and his friend were playing with sticks as if they were magic wands, "The blonde one's mine. She's 6." Remus watched the children play.
"You took my CD and broke it! That CD was so important to me!" Luna said as she slashed her wand toward her smaller, brunette friend.
Her poor friend cowered slightly but swung his sword nonetheless, "It's just a CD, Luna!" He said in a high-pitched voice, but Luna was not giving in, she kept going at it, which highly amused Remus.
" Luna!" A blonde woman with a soft voice called to her, "Play nice, please!" She seemed used to yelling at her for that reason.
"But he took my-" Luna began to sputter but was interrupted immediately.
"It's a CD, Luna," The woman told her, "We can get another one easily."
Luna shook his head angrily, "It won't be the same, that was Grandpa’s." She complained, and her brunette friend rolled his eyes before dodging another wand charm.
"They seem close" Remus told Peter, and Peter nodded with a smile.
"Practically been friends since birth." Peter seemed experienced with planting flowers, expertly burying the seed and watering as if he'd done so many times in the past.
"Thank you." Remus sent a small smile to Peter, "I assume it's not that hard and I'm just extremely dense."
"No pro-" Peter began but his daughter ran toward him suddenly, tears in his eyes.
"Daddy! He's here again!" The boy sobbed, collapsing into his father's arms.
"Who's here, Luna?" Peter comforted the young boy. "Uncle!" Luna cried into Peter's chest, pointing to his far left. Peter looked at Remus apologetically,
"She's afraid of her uncle."
Remus was about to ask why when suddenly a man with a tall stature, military boots, and ginger hair shouted, "WHERE IS LUNA?" Remus understood why Luna found him intimidating. "I heard a little someone is fighting people for a disc. If that's you, come here and fight me to the death!" The uncle shouted, before spotting Luna, "Was it you?"
"N-no" Luna whimpered but the uncle moved closer, not believing her lie.
"Okay. I'm sorry Uncle Grant."
Peter looked at the blonde woman, "Did you call him, Pandora?"
Pandora gave an apologetic look, "He was being mean to Ted, and this is the only way to stop her." Uncle Grant grabbed the wand from Ted and marched toward Luna.
Luna ran past Grant, who attempted to grab her but she was too slippery. She made a beeline to Ted, "I'm sorry, Ted."
Ted smiled, "It's alright Luna." He said before hugging his friend.
"That was easier than I thought." Grant shrugged as he watched the boys embrace "Bummer, I thought I'd get to fight a child." He threw the wand down before walking away. Remus laughed during the whole situation, they seemed like such a happy family.
A sting of jealousy filled up inside him. From seeing Luna play with a friend, to Peter and Pandora's hilarious parenting style, he wishes he had grown up like that.
“Well, I should go." Peter told Remus, "My father's coming in tonight for dinner, and he hasn't done that in a while so it's quite a big deal."
Remus grinned, "Nice meeting you and your family, Peter." He got up and brushed the dirt off his jeans, "I hope we'll get to talk again."
Peter yelled for Luna, "So do I. Have a nice day!" He walked toward his daughter, picking her up and urging Ted to follow so he could get back home to his family safe and sound.
