wonderwall

Regulus woke up and was tangled in something. He squirmed trying to escape, but it held a firm grip.

The thing groaned. “Ow.”

This shook Regulus back to consciousness. 

James. 

The thing was James. 

He was tangled up in James.

He looked up and James smiled down at him. 

The fact that James didn’t seem to want to go anywhere let the panic dissolve in Regulus. He tried to stay perfectly still so that James would forget about him, and never get up.

“Did you sleep well?” James asked, not enjoying their silence.

“Yeah,” Regulus responded, “What time is it?”

“Uhh let me check,” James leaned over to grab both of their phones from the side of the bed, still holding Regulus tight, like he could be snatched away at any moment, “Oh shit. 12:44.”

“Fuck. James, we have a shift at one.” Regulus felt the panic come back, “We have to get up. Is Sirius up? Can he drive us? I’ll go wake up Sirius.”

“Nooooo.” James latched on to Regulus as he stood up, like he was glued to him.

“I’m going to go talk to Sirius. Maybe text Dorcas and tell her we’re gonna be late.” Regulus said laughing as he ripped away from the giant next to him.

“Okay,” James tried to pout, but he couldn’t contain the grin that he still had from waking up with Regulus in his arms.

~*~

Regulus practically ran to Sirius’ room, pounding on the door a couple times and letting himself in.

“OH MY GOD YOU CUNT GET THE FUCK OUT,” Regulus saw a big lump stir on top of Sirius that he assumed was a freshly woken up Remus. Luckily, they hadn’t been doing anything. Just sleeping.

“Good morning to you too, my favorite brother in the world. Can you drive me and James to work?” Regulus replied with a smile.

“Ugh fine. What time do you need to be there?” Regulus saw Sirius’ anger slowly fade away as he looked down at Remus.

“In ten minutes.” Regulus ran out of the room before the consequences of his actions caught up to him.

He saw Mary, Lily, and Marlene all asleep in his bed, which for some reason he didn’t mind? James was a bad influence on him. 

Regulus scrambled about the room and got ready before meeting James, Sirius, and Remus downstairs. The first floor was spotless, Peter, who lost a bet and was stuck cleaning all morning, did a good job.

Everyone piled into Sirius’ black Jeep. The drive there was around five minutes, but somehow James still found a way to almost kill himself.

James was sitting in the back seat of the car, facing Regulus, his back pressed up against the side door. He rolled the window down and stuck his head out. Backwards. 

Regulus saw this and yelled at James, “Get back in you idiot, your head is gonna get chopped off.” James heard this, smiled, and ignored him. 

Regulus was not dealing with this so early in the morning. He leaned forwards, grabbed James by the front of his shirt, and yanked him back as hard as he could.

Regulus severely overestimated the amount of strength he would need and ended up pulling James straight onto his lap.

“If you wanted me here you could've just said so,” James laughed out. His face was bright red.

“Oh, fuck off,” Regulus laughed back. He felt his face get hot too.

“Can you guys please get a room or something?” Remus asked, laughing.

“Why are you guys trying to fuck in the back seat of my car?” Sirius added, with a laugh of his own.

“Oh my god I hate you both,” Regulus scowled.

“You know you love us.” Sirius replied.

The car slowed down outside of the store and James and Regulus got out. They walked in to see Severus sitting at the register and Dorcas talking to a customer.

“Sorry we’re late Sniv, won’t happen again!” James shot and quickly grabbed Regulus and brought him upstairs to the board room. 

“You guys are late! I’m going to tell Fleamont!” Severus called at them.

“Go ahead, have fun!” James answered. Severus groaned in response.

“God, I hate him,” Regulus said.

“Same,” James seemed to notice he was still holding Regulus’ hand and quickly dropped it. Their phones both buzzed.

Mary: heres the digital cam pics! *9+ attachments*

Peter: WHEN WAS THE LAST ONE HELLO?

Marlene: OH MY GOD THE LAST ONE HAHAHA

Sirius: HAHAHAHHA

Regulus quickly swiped through the pictures, skipping the absolutely vile snipes that Mary took, to find the last one.

It was James holding Regulus last night. James was staring down at Regulus with a look of pure admiration, a huge lopsided grin was plastered on his face. 

He scowled down at his phone and quickly typed a response.

Regulus: so i think i actually hate every single one of you guys thanks

Regulus looked across the room at James and his face was bright red. He looked up from his phone to meet Regulus’ eye. the anger that Regulus had towards James dissipated with the quick smile that James had flashed him. It was almost infuriating how quickie Regulus could forgive him.

That shift was awkward, to say the least. They didn’t really talk, and instead of fighting the silence, they let it consume them. Sirius picked them up afterwards.

“So you two..,” Sirius started, “Did you make out in the bathroom?”

“No.” Regulus shot James a look that served as an apology.

“You know me and Sirius tried that once, it wasn’t as bad as you would think.” Remus admitted.

“Oh my God ew, " Regulus answered him, “That's disgusting, please shut up now.”

“Whatever you say,” Remus huffed out a laugh.

~*~

“You guys don’t get it. It was- It was humiliating!”

“I’m lost. You’ve liked him for forever, you were laying down in his arms, you fell asleep in said arms, there was a picture taken where he looks like he’s in love with you, and you’re embarrassed about it?”

Evan and Barty were laying down with each other on Regulus’ bed while Pandora was walking Regulus around the room to calm him down. 

“I’m also confused.” Barty added.

“Same,” said Evan, “You literally have nothing to be embarrassed about. The other pictures of people are way worse. There was one of Mary and Lily making out while standing on a table.”

“I guess but still,” Regulus pleaded, “He hasn’t even spoken to me. Neither has Sirius. I think they’re both mad about it.”

“Well they have no right to be. It’s not like it’s your fault.” Pandora was right. James was the one who wanted him to sleep right there, in his arms. James was also at fault for Sirius being mad too. Clearly, there's a common denominator here, so Regulus decided he should go handle that. “I’m going to go talk to James. I’ll text and let you know what happens.” The group left the room, and split up.

Regulus walked to James’ door and knocked. No response. He tried calling James’ name Still nothing. Regulus accepted defeat until he heard something from Sirius’ room.

Voices.

Regulus decided he wasn’t feeling evil today and let the two have their privacy. He returned to his room and flopped onto his bed.

Knock. Knock. Knock.

“Come in.” Regulus responded. James walked in. He looked good.

“Hi Reg.” He said awkwardly.

“Hello James” He responded, equally as awkward.

“I think Sirius is texting everyone about doing a movie here tonight. Are you gonna come down and hang out?” James was slowly approaching Regulus’ bed.

“Yea, sure” Regulus felt the weird tension, “is that all you came in here to ask?

“Um, No,” James was fidgeting with the bottom hem of his t-shirt, “Can I come lay down?”

“Of course.” Regulus wasn’t sure what James meant by that. Did he want to lay down like they usually did, or did he want to hold Regulus like last night? Just to be safe, Regulus shifted over to the inside of the bed and laid on his side.

“Thanks,” James got in and laid flat on his back, so Regulus did the same, “I feel like there's this weird vibe between us. Is it about last night? It didn’t have to mean anything.”

This was the first time someone had talked during this. Regulus made a silent note in his head that it was okay because James was the one talking. “No, not at all. I mean what happened last night doesn't really matter. We were both drunk, right?” James crossed their ankles.

“Yea totally,” James seemed upset by this, “I can get Mary to delete the picture if you want me to?”

“It’s fine, I'm sure everyone already has it saved anyways.” Regulus responded. James stayed for a little while longer, but eventually got up and left.