“Would you fall in love with me again?" Regulus asks softly, not daring to meet the other boy’s gaze. He has no clue what the answer will be but he silently hopes it’s what he wants to hear. The silence stretches out for too long. He lifts his gaze slightly and looks into the brown eyes that warm him. The brown eyes that make him love nature. He searches those eyes like he’s done so many times before. But this time he comes out empty-handed. He can’t decipher the emotions the other boy is feeling and it tears him apart. He tries to look away but can’t. Stuck in this moment of suspense.
He looks down at the lips he’s kissed countless times before as they open and close again, struggling to find words. He swallows, about to say something to break the uncomfortable silence, until he hears it. The voice he has fallen in love with, so small, so vulnerable, so unlike how it normally sounds.
“Reg-” his gaze lifts back up to meet a sad stare. His name like a prayer and curse all at once, begging him to listen, begging him to fall into the deepest depths of the ocean, not knowing how to swim. Maybe drowning isn’t as bad as he thinks, if only it allows him to escape from this moment. To escape from the once loving gaze now infused with sadness. To escape the reality of what he’s done pressing down on him, slowly crushing him. Or maybe that isn’t what’s crushing him. Maybe the thing that’s crushing him is seeing his love so unsure, so afraid of saying the wrong thing, of hurting Regulus like it isn’t Regulus who hurt him.
“I-I would fall in love with you over and over again. I don’t…I don’t care how, where, or when. No matter how long it's been….you're mine. Don’t…don’t tell me you’re not the same person. You're always my Regulus and I’ve been waiting.”
Regulus feels his knees buckle but doesn’t register he’s falling. His heart aches as he hears the words said softly, with so much love. He looks up at the other boy who’s holding him so delicately like he might break at any second and Regulus is sure he might.
A single tear falls down his cheek as he looks into the brown eyes that are looking at him so lovingly. He feels himself breaking, not of sadness but of relief. He reaches out and gently cups the other boy’s cheek. A strangled sob escapes him as he feels the warmth he’s been craving for months. The other boy lowers them both to the ground and as soon as they hit it, Regulus desperately claws at him. Trying to get closer, trying to hold onto him like he might disappear.
“I love you James.”
“I love you Regulus.”