The corridor was relatively empty, save for a few scattered students heading to their next class or lingering in hushed conversations. James barely noticed them. His attention was entirely on the boy in front of him—Regulus Black, looking as composed and elegant as ever, except for the slight furrow in his brow and the way his fingers fidgeted with the edge of his sleeve.
James had learned to notice these small tells, the little betrayals of Regulus’s carefully maintained poise. And right now, something was bothering him.
“You’re upset,” James said, tilting his head slightly as he studied Regulus’s face. “Come on, love, tell me what’s wrong.”
Regulus sighed, shaking his head. “It’s nothing.”
James squinted at him, unconvinced. “It’s obviously something. Did someone say something? Is it your brother? Or—” his eyes narrowed as a more dreadful thought occurred to him, “—did Snape do something? Because I swear to Merlin, I’ll—”
“No, James,” Regulus cut him off, exasperated but still fond. “It’s not that. It’s… it’s nothing, alright? Don’t worry about it.”
James wasn’t buying it. He hummed, considering. “Is it about Valentine’s Day?”
At this, Regulus stiffened slightly. It was so minor that anyone else might have missed it, but James knew him too well.
“Oh, Merlin,” James groaned, dragging a hand down his face. “I forgot, didn’t I? I didn’t prepare anything, did I?”
Regulus blinked at him, opening and closing his mouth before finally saying, “It’s fine. I didn’t prepare anything either.”
The moment the words left his mouth, every single one of their friends within earshot turned to stare at him with suspicion.
James stared at him. “Oh no,” he muttered. “You did, didn’t you?”
“No! Of course not,” Regulus said, voice going just a fraction too high-pitched. “You’re saying absurd things.”
And just as James opened his mouth to call him out, Barty Crouch Jr. came skidding around the corner, out of breath as if he had run across half the castle. “Reggie!” he gasped, drawing the attention of more than a few passersby. “You forgot James’s gift in the dorm!”
Regulus squeezed his eyes shut as if willing the floor to swallow him whole before bringing a hand to cover his face in pure mortification.
Oblivious to the way Regulus was slowly crumbling from secondhand embarrassment, Barty continued cheerfully, “You were so busy telling us how much you wanted this day to be special, going on and on about all the sentimental nonsense—”
“Barty.” Regulus’s voice was tight, warning.
“—and you left it on your bed,” Barty finished with a triumphant grin before pausing, finally catching up with the tension in the air. He blinked at Regulus’s horrified expression, then at James’s wide-eyed, dawning realisation. “…Oh. Should I not have said that?”
Regulus groaned, running a hand down his face. “Barty, I will hex you into oblivion.”
James, on the other hand, had gone strangely silent, staring at Regulus with a mixture of surprise and something softer. He took a step closer, reaching out to gently pull Regulus’s hand away from his face. “You planned something?”
Regulus let out a sigh, knowing there was no getting out of this now. “Yes,” he admitted quietly. “I did.”
James felt something warm bloom in his chest. “And you got me a gift?”
Regulus shifted on his feet. “Yes.”
Barty, completely unbothered by the death glare Regulus was sending him, grinned. “It’s a necklace. He had it custom-made. A sun, because, you know—”
“Barty.”
“—you’re his sun, obviously. He never shuts up about it.”
Regulus groaned again, burying his face in his hands, but James was barely listening. He felt like his heart had stopped and started again all at once. “A sun?” he echoed, looking at Regulus, who was very determinedly not meeting his gaze. “Reg, you got me a sun?”
Regulus muttered something incomprehensible into his hands, and James couldn’t help but grin. “What was that, love?”
Regulus exhaled heavily before finally lifting his gaze to meet James’s, cheeks faintly pink. “It’s—it’s part of a pair. Mine is a star. They fit together.”
Something about that—about Regulus, with all his history, all his struggles, all the ways he had been taught to hide and fight and survive—choosing something like that, something that so openly tied them together, made James feel like he was going to burst.
“I forgot to bring yours,” Regulus mumbled, still embarrassed. “But there was a letter with it too, and a… well. A poem.”
James’s eyes went wide. “You wrote me a poem?”
Regulus visibly contemplated throwing himself out the nearest window. “Don’t make me say it out loud.”
James, feeling an overwhelming rush of affection, grinned at him before abruptly pulling him into a hug. “I love you,” he murmured, tucking his face into Regulus’s neck.
Regulus let out a small, flustered noise before sighing, melting slightly into the embrace. “You’re an idiot.”
“I can’t believe I forgot to get you something,” James muttered against his skin, genuine regret lacing his voice. “I was too busy dealing with Sirius and Remus being miserable.”
Regulus huffed a laugh. “You’re ridiculous.”
James pulled back just enough to press a kiss to his forehead. “I swear I’ll make it up to you.”
Regulus rolled his eyes, though there was no real annoyance in his expression. “You’d better.”
James grinned before leaning in to kiss him properly, ignoring the exaggerated gagging sounds coming from Barty, who was promptly dragged away by Evan Rosier before he could further interrupt their moment.
As far as Valentine’s Days went, James thought, this might just be his favourite yet.
End?