The alarm is inside Regulus’ eardrums at the crack of fucking dawn. His face scrunches up and he flips himself to the opposite side- facing away from the noise.
“Ah, sorry Babe, it’s still early.”
Regulus is glad he’s facing the wall because he flushes a little at the nickname.
“Shut up James.”
“Then after a moment of tense silence at Regulus’ remark, he placates (though his voice sounds really devastated), “I was having such a good dream.”
Chuckling, James lowers himself back to lying down, and hovering over Regulus’ ear, whispers, “Bet I could make it up to you.”
Regulus blushes furiously, obviously. And he bites his lip- though James still can’t see his face- as he argues, “But your parents are home.”
“Ah good point. Don’t want them to hear you scream. Do you want to stay in bed for a bit longer though, or do you fancy some breakfast?”
What!? Ugh. And turning him on when he’s rejecting him? How awful can James get? Regulus was just acting like they shouldn’t, he didn’t want James to believe it.
“I’m too good at fucking acting.” Regulus mutters, before leaning over to kiss James on the cheek and say, “Breakfast.”
They clean their teeth next to each other, nudging one another with their hips every now and again, and smiling at each other through the mirror.
“Tienes ganas de algo específico?” James asks, as they make their way down the stairs.
“Demasiado temprano para español, James.”
“You’re funny.” James laughs as he compliments, then he spins around on the stairs from his place a stair below Regulus. Regulus smiles, instinctively, and it hardly goes away when James pulls him down for a kiss. And James’ parents could easily see them- from any angle, and Regulus feels a little unbalanced on the stairs, but this is perfect. This is home.
After James pulls away, looking rather proud of himself, Regulus asks, “What was that for?”
“Just wanted to.” Then, because James can never leave things as they are, “And your Spanish accent is so funny, man.”
Regulus just rolls his eyes in response and nudges James to carry on walking, scalding him for calling him ‘man’ as they make their way to the kitchen.
As James retrieves the eggs for some crêpes, he makes the point, “I love you, and surely that’s enough for you to know we’re not friends.”
Despite the fact that those three words make Regulus’ stomach squirm and fill him with warmth, he continues arguing like the warrior he is, “You cannot use that as a point! I’m not saying that I think we’re friends when you call me ‘bro’ or ‘mate’ or ‘man’ or -God forbid- ‘baby Black’, I'm saying it makes me feel like you treat me like a friend. Look, you know what I mean.”
“Okay, but honestly you are one of my friends, don’t tell Sirius but you’re probably my best friend. Do you want to crack the eggs honey?”
“Of course, it is all three?”
James hums the in the affirmative, and Regulus starts cracking them- miraculously without any shells in the batter.
“But no, I won’t tell Sirius, because it’s not true. He is your best friend, just like you are his- not Remus. Because he is more than best friends with him, just like you’re more than best friends with me.”
“Well, I’m not going to start treating you like a sex object.”
“Obviously. What’s your point?”
Finished with the eggs, Regulus grabs a whisk from the drawer and starts to combine them with the milk. He ignores James’ eyes that focus in on his hands and arms.
“My point is that friendship is when I talk to you and laugh with you and hang out with you.”
“No, I'm pretty sure that’s us being in a relationship.”
“You know what, I'm fed up with this conversation. In a minute I'm going to pull those fucking fingers away from that stupid crêpe mixture and fucking lick them and then I'm going to fucking maul on your arm because those muscles are driving me insane, and you know it.”
Grinning like a madman, Regulus ponders aloud, “I wonder what’s stopping you.”
Determination painted on his face, James puts down the chocolate he was chopping up, and starts walking- painfully slowly- towards Regulus, tongue licking at his lips.
Regulus starts to fluster, grin now a nervous (and very happy) smile.
And then his fucking mother walks in.
“Hi boys. What are you up to this morning?”
James plants his head on the table and groans.
“Hi Effie, James has been struggling to stay focused on cutting the chocolate, but when he does get it done, we’re having crêpes.” Regulus gives James a look as he says, ‘stay focused’, and James just smiles sweetly back at him from where his face lays on its side on the table. Regulus finds it all dangerously endearing.
“That sounds lovely dear. James, have you offered Regulus a drink?”
Squeezing his eyes very tightly shut, James offers, “Regulus, do you want a drink?”
Trying desperately to refrain from laughing, Regulus says, “Actuall,y I've been parched all morning. Some water would be perfect.”
With his back to his mum, James mouths, ‘I hate you.’, only getting a fake shocked expression in return.
“James.” His mother scalds, seemingly being able to see through James’ head.
“Sorry. Do you want some water too, mum?”
“Tea is fine.” She responds, sharing a mischievous look with Regulus, who laughs.
She gravitates towards the chocolate and starts to chop it into smaller pieces as Regulus whisks in flour. Last time he got told off for the lumps and had to suffer through James whisking the mixture, with veins basically on the outside of his skin, so this time he tries extra hard.
When James passes him the water, it’s with a quiet, “You’re driving me fucking insane.”
Regulus only gives a cocky smirk in response, to which he receives a minuscule shake of James’ head with an insanely attractive clenched jaw.
Regulus laughs and puts on some music- something James’ mum would like. She smiles when the smiths starts playing, so Regulus thinks he’s made the right decision.
When the kettle has boiled, and Effie gets her tea from a smug-looking James, and she leaves to text her friends on the living room sofa. They’re alone again, and Regulus can’t stop himself from smiling. Especially when James flexes his muscles when he gets out a pan for the crêpes. The eye rolling amounts to nothing with how much Regulus’ cheeks heat up.
“You’re so cute.” Says James. Regulus blushes a bit more.
“You’re really, really fit, like, I want to kiss you so bad.” He continues. Regulus blushes even more.
“Babe, I love it when you get all flustered.” And this time Regulus feels himself transforming into a beetroot (he’s that red).
“Shut up James.”
“No pet names for me?” James feigns horror and pulls his hand up to his chest in fake shock.
“Baby, won’t you just get on with breakfast. I’m hungry.” This time James blushes, and scrambles to pour some oil in the pan and turn on the heat, the smell of warm oil quickly wafting through the kitchen.
In the end, James only begs Regulus to flip the pancakes twice before finally getting over his fear and trying it for himself. One lands on the floor (courtesy of an overconfident Regulus), which James tells Regulus that he’ll have, and that Regulus promptly throws in the bin.
Tidying up entails Regulus splashing James with water when he says something a little too NSFW, and an entire water fight occurring. They mop up before James’ mum sees the mess though thankfully, laughing and being stupid with one another the whole time.
When it’s time to get dressed and meet with their friends, Regulus feels so safe and content he’s not sure he won’t float off.
He sits cross-legged on James’ bed, watching James undress and dress as he talks about Uni drama. He’s pulling on a shirt that snags on his glasses as he says, “So everyone expected that Jarod was the gay one cheating on her, but it was completely the opposite. Turns out Jarod isn’t gay; he’s just a nerd and turns out that Lucy is just a femme. Or at least that’s what Marlene said.”
“How does Marlene find out all this shit?”
Now James is pulling on some jeans- Regulus' favorites that he wanted to wear today, but whatever.
“She knows everyone, pulls them all in with drama and then spreads theirs.”
“Ooh we should be careful then, but hey- are your black jeans in the wash?”
“No, do you want them today?”
“Yeah, I dunno. I was thinking maybe your navy shirt, my black jumper and those jeans you’re wearing now, but I have to think of something new now.”
James pauses doing up his belt, offering, “You can wear these if you want, I'm not fussed.”
“You’re cute. But no, wear your clothes, I'll steal something you’re not already wearing.”
James smiles and kisses Regulus’ forehead, asking, “You sure?”
“I’m sure. How could I steal The James Potter Jeans anyway?”
“Okay... you’ll be the one regretting it later!”
“I’ll look good either way. Don’t you worry about me.”
“Oh, it’s not that I'm worried about that, I promise.”
Regulus smiles and then jumps up to get dressed too.
“Are we forgetting anything?” Asks Regulus before they leave the house a little while later.
“I’ve got keys, phone and tissues, got your phone?”
“Yeah, ugh why do I feel like I'm forgetting something?”
Effie sweeps into the foyer, announcing, “Because you are! Can’t forget to say goodbye, my dears.”
James rolls his eyes and says, “Bye, mum.” but she isn’t having it, and disputes it with, “Just because your friend is here, doesn’t mean I don’t get a hug.”
Regulus can’t help laughing, despite the tugging in his chest, when Effie pulls James into a forced hug. She winks at him over James’ shoulder, and Regulus snickers.
“What are you laughing about?” James asks rather suspiciously, as he pulls away from his mother and turns to unlock the door.
Regulus answers a completely innocent, “Nothing at all.” and then waves at James’ mum as he follows him out the door, treading on James' heel completely accidentally. James still narrows his eyes at him, but there's no malice in it as he reaches for Regulus’ hand.
Their union of hands swings between them, and the chilly air has no chance against James Potter’s partiality for touch. Regulus sneaks a look at him, and is about to quickly look away when James looks back, before he realises he doesn’t have to. Instead, he relishes in the way James’ cheeks heat up in the bite of the cold, and the way his eyes take the colour of honey in the bright sun. He bites his lip to stop from smiling, then looks towards the ground as they continue to walk.
After a few moments, James starts talking about his most recent fixation- Regulus' brother and their best friend, better known as Sirius and Remus. James ‘ships’ them, and despite the fact he’d never admit it with such words, Regulus shares the opinion that they need to get together.
“Like, I worry that they don’t get together because they’re scared of messing up the group, but Mary and Lily are basically girlfriends, and Marlene and Dorcas are together, and nothing has gone wrong. I just hope they know I'd support them.”
“I don’t-” Starts Regulus, before stopping to piece together his sentence while James waits, “I don’t think Sirius realises he likes Remus.”
“Huh.”
Regulus can only laugh at that, giving James’ hand a squeeze. “I didn’t realise I liked you for like two months, and I knew I was gay. Baby, he thinks he’s straight.”
“What- but- how don’t you realise that wanting to be around someone all the time and wanting to kiss and hold them means you like them?”
“You just have to be really good at repression, and really bad at self-awareness. Something Walburga trained Me and Sirius in since birth. Quite easy after all that time practicing.”
“Oh, sorry, love. I just meant that it’s been like this for years. He must realise soon.”
“James.Don’t jinx it.”
Ironically, James claims, “You’re too superstitious.” as he avoids stepping on a crack in the pavement. Regulus raises his eyebrows until James understands, and then gets a petulant, “Well that’s about my mum. It’s different.”
“Uh huh.”
“Anyway.”
“Anyway! What are we getting for the picnic?”
“Baguette?” James has a look of indifference, like this isn’t what everyone will be eating in an hour and judging him on.
“We can’t only bring that, James come on.”
James gives Regulus a look before counting off on his fingers, “Sirius is bringing cheese, Remus is bringing Ham, Mary is bringing strawberries, Lily’s got the chocolate, Peter has some Coke and Fanta I think, and Dorcas and Marlene said that their presence is enough.”
The tugging in Regulus’ chest returns.
“Why wasn’t I involved in this conversation?”
“Sirius doesn’t want anyone to bother you.”
“Oh my god, don’t be ridiculous.”
“I’m not! I asked what you were bringing because I was going to get it for you, and he said ‘nothing’ and that nobody can ask you to bring anything.”
Regulus clenches his teeth for a second before announcing, “Well, I'm bringing prosecco.”
“Thought we were trying to drink less?”
James seems very hesitant, but that does not stop his boyfriend. Regulus doesn’t even satisfy him with an answer, walking into the shop with a look of determination that could not be rivaled.
He will be involved in the conversation next time. He gets an expensive one, almost wincing at the price, just in case.
“Hey, I could have bought that.” James says with a cute little pout, after catching up with Regulus outside the shop. Regulus balks, his anger, no- frustration, draining away all at once. “Sorry, I just got carried away. Wanted to be a part of the group I guess.”
James takes his hand, and pulls it to his mouth to press a kiss to Regulus’ knuckles. “You are part of the group. Everyone loves you babe. Your presence is enough.”
Suddenly embarrassed by his show of emotion, Regulus tries to hide his smile and pulls away his hand, scratching the back of his neck. James only looks back at him with a sort of devotion and understanding, Regulus feels splayed open and... accepted. His eyes suddenly becoming increasingly watery, he starts fast-walking towards the park, just in front of James.
It turns out to be good timing, because just before Regulus was thinking of going back to take James’ hand again, Peter comes across them. “Oh, hi guys!”
“Hey Pete, you alright?” greets James with a grin.
Regulus turns back to look at him without reason, then turns back to Peter, who’s replying, “All good, today’s a lovely day for the picnic.”
Conversation about the weather. Regulus already wants to hide.
“Yeah, perfect really.” That’s all Regulus has got, he hopes Peter won’t make the entire conversation about this, because they’re walking together now and they’re about 5 minutes away from meeting the others.
Flashing a fearful look at James, Regulus falls back into step with him, letting the boy's unworried look flood calm through him.
“Peter, have you got the pop then?”
“Yeah, yeah, I got Pepsi though, so nobody better complain.”
Regulus fakes a laugh and lets himself fade into the background. Guilt prickles at him a little, maybe he shouldn’t have got a drink- Peter already bought some.
They argue over the superiority of different bubbly drinks, and Regulus lets himself get distracted. Absentmindedly, he finds himself taking James’ hand from where they walk just behind Peter. James squeezes once and lets go of his hand, waking Regulus up from his trance and causing him to look around in a stress. Shit. Right behind Peter. He needs to be more careful. Shit.
James mutters, “He didn’t see, don’t worry.” while Peter goes on a passionate tangent about soda water. It’s not James’ fault, but it’s not enough. Regulus is anxious now. He bites his nails, and yawns about three times in quick succession. Because shit. They're going to get found out. And the drink. Peter has already got drinks. They hate him, they hate him, they hate him.
After a moment of stressing, James says to Peter, “Go on, I need to have a word with Regulus.”
Peter nods and keeps on going, while Regulus stops with James in the middle of the pavement.
“Ooh, a word...” Regulus tries to play it cool. He fails miserably; James doesn’t even give him a pity laugh.
“Babe, you need to stop stressing.”
Regulus opens his eyes exaggeratedly wide in shock before using his driest tone to exclaim, “Wow. Thank you so much, it’s all gone!”
James swipes his hand over his face before trying again, “I meant, there’s nothing to worry about. Nothing’ll go wrong.”
“I shouldn’t have bought the prosecco; it’s like I'm trying to show him up.”
“It is not. Nobody is overthinking it but you, I promise.”
Regulus looks to the side, to see Peter walking away from them. Then, he brings his arms around James’ torso and pulls his face into the space between his shoulder and neck. This is better. He feels safe like this, ironically. “Thank you.” He whispers, like a secret. He doesn’t feel perfect, but with James, things are a little better.
As he pulls away, James holds him still for a moment with a hand on the back of his neck, and presses a kiss to Regulus’ lips. “It’s only our friends. It’ll be fine, good even. Nobody secretly hates you, and nobody is thinking about you as much as you are. Except me. I’m always thinking about you, obviously.”
Regulus smiles softly, and fully comes away to walk with James the rest of the way, feeling almost calm.
When they make their way to the group, James whispers, “I love you, and so do they.” and Regulus feels safe. Smiling, Regulus looks over the group before his eyes snag on Evan. Evan! From his other friend group- the one he’s more comfortable with.
“Hey mate, what’re you doing here?”
“Oh hi, well I was walking and Remus here-” He cocks his head towards the tall boy, in the way he does with the guys he’s flirting or has slept with, “-invited me over. What’re you doing here?”
“These are my friends, that’s my brother over there- Sirius- talking to James.” It's just faces to names for Evan, he's heard about all of these people in depth before.
“James?” A popular name in the group where they’re not a secret.
“Yeah, he’s my brother’s best friend.” Regulus says it as nonchalantly as possible, hoping for the absolute best.
“He’s fit.”
Dick.
“Er- How do you two know each other?” Regulus turns the question back on Evan, and Remus who is listening to the conversation.
Remus starts to stammer something about being in uni classes together, but Evan steps in and clears up any misunderstandings with, “Been casually sleeping together for the last couple weeks.”
“Fun.” Regulus teases, watching Remus’ face flood with colour and Evan look bored.
“Yeah,” Evan tries, “Yeah it is, isn’t it? If Regulus is up for it we could always try something together actually.”
Regulus knows Evan is just trying to scare Remus, because he knows that Remus is in love with Regulus’ brother, and that Regulus is very much monogamously with James.
So it’s funny, when Remus’ eyes widen and his eyebrows shoot up. He looks to Regulus first, who goes along with it, tilting his head in feigned thought. Then Remus starts to say, “Look, I don’t usually get involved with people like this, especially not friends.”
“Really? I got the vibe that you and Sirius over there had something going on.”
Regulus rolls his eyes, but Remus’ face physically comes forward, “Really? Because, like- wait, Regulus can you go away?”
“I won’t tell my brother you’re in love with him, don’t worry.”
Remus balks, his mouth dropping open. Evan breathes a laugh, and a couple moments later, both Evan and Regulus are laughing uncontrollably, leaning against the other for support.
Once they’ve gathered themselves, Evan says, “I don’t mind if you wanna say his name in bed.”
With interest in his voice, Remus asks, “Really?” as Regulus basically shouts, “Shut the actual fuck up! I do not want to hear that!!”
“We can talk later.” Evan placates, before making to leave. Regulus shoves him as he walks away, and he laughs in response and gives Regulus a wink.
Less than a second later, Regulus turns around to jump out of his skin at the sight of Sirius and James less than a fucking ruler’s length from his face.
“What the fuck?”
“Are you okay?” James says as Sirius interrupts, “Why were you screaming? Who was that?”
Regulus rolls his eyes and says, “I’m fine thank you James, I screamed because they were talking about sex and that was my friend Evan who’s been fucking Remus.”
“Regulus!” Remus practically screams, slapping Regulus’ neck and then looking immediately guilty.
“Fuck I just bit my tongue. Is that... Is Evan your... your boyfriend?” So much distaste is obvious on Sirius’ face that Regulus can’t stop himself from laughing.
“Obviously not.” Cuts in James.
Then, in the tense second of silence, Remus randomly says, “He wanted me and him and Regulus to have a threesome.”
Regulus swipes both hands over his face, exhausted before even having seen James and Sirius’ faces.
“What the fuck!?” They both swear in sync, looking a weird mix of angry and shocked immediately.
Regulus walks away.
As he goes to join the girls, he notices James go to follow him but then remember himself and stay with a scared Remus and an angry Sirius.
“Hey guys, tell me something normal.” He interrupts the conversation with quite a bit of urgency.
Mary tilts her head, “Huh.”
But Dorcas gets it, and they say, “So. On my way here, I saw Mary and Lily kissing.” they whisper that last bit, despite Mary and Lily clearly being able to hear them. Lily rolls her eyes, and Mary bites her lip and smiles.
"Oh shit," Regulus fake engages, "do you think there's something going on between them?"
"You know, maybe."
Then they both laugh, before joining the girl's circle.
Marlene introduces Regulus into the conversation, “We were talking about whether someone can have a good music taste or not, give me a sec to yell at Mary about why she’s wrong and then you can tell us what you think.”
“That’s okay. I'm quite content to listen.”
"Why aren't all men like you? Actually, I take it back, you'd lose your charm." Compliments (Regulus thinks) Lily, looking a little afraid of the debate ahead, and a little like she wants a part in it.
"Thank you? Er-"
“Should we sit down?” Dorcas thankfully cuts in, asking the group, to which they receive some shrugs and nods and everyone sitting down all at once.
Then Marlene (not yelling but close) starts arguing her point, “Mary. You just don’t fucking get it. Good is subjective like you said, and so I can subjectively say that something is good, so I can subjectively say that a music taste is good. So a music taste can be good or bad.”
Mary takes her volume in stride, and in a perfectly calm and measured tone responds, “No. If something is anything, it cannot be subjective. It has to be subject to fact and evidence or whatever. So, your opinion is that a music taste is good, which is the same thing as saying that you like the music taste. So you can say that the music taste is good in your opinion, but you can’t claim that it is just good without evidence. And there can’t be evidence because it’s subjective.”
“Fuck off.” And she flops onto her back to look at the sky.
With those two quiet, now arguing over what things the different clouds look like and Lily now talking to Peter, Dorcas whisper-asks, “So, what happened over there?”
Dorcas is one of the few to know about Regulus and James, so they understand when he responds, “Evan was over there and suggested a threesome with me, him and Remus. Then Remus decided to inform my brother and James of that suggestion.”
They laugh. Regulus looks at them with a completely flat face, and it seems only to encourage the laughter.
“Oh my god,” They say through giggles and laughter, "Evan’s such a shit stirrer.”
Regulus only rolls his eyes, “Shut up, you still love him.”
“Okay, but you have to admit that’s a little funny.” They pinch their fingers together, and squint when looking at the space between them, to drive the point home: it’s a very little bit funny. Fine. Not funny enough to laugh.
Looking apprehensive, Regulus complains, “He’ll be going on about that tonight though. We’re organized to call at seven.”
“Jealousy is sexy. Make the weird situation into something good for you.”
And- And, oh. That’s, well, that’s an idea.
“Like... over the call?”
“Why not?”
“Er. I’m not talking about this with you.” Dorcas only raises their eyebrows, knowing full well that Regulus will be calling them later in a panic. Oh well. That’s hypocrisy for future Regulus to deal with.
The rest of the picnic goes swimmingly, James sits next to Regulus and opens the prosecco (Regulus lies and claims that James brought it) to ‘ooh’s and ‘ah’s. He smiles, taking the appreciation with none of the awkwardness. He should really blame things on James more often.
They all eat baguettes with cheese (and ham for the non-vegetarians), and enjoy stupid conversations about stupid things. They laugh a lot, throw grass at one another at one point, and take weird pictures of one another. (Regulus secretly takes a very pretty picture of James, which will be turning into his phone home-screen later) The picnic all gets eaten, and by the end of the outing, Regulus can barely even remember the anxiety he felt coming here. It’s all soft and funny memories when he makes his way back to his shared apartment with Dorcas.
Today, Regulus decides as he settles down to call with James in nothing but his boyfriend’s shirt, was a good day.